Joseph J. Muldoon saved Daniel Newman from suffocation, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, April 21, 1963. At night, fire broke out in the kitchen of a three-story dwelling in which Daniel, 1, and his three siblings were asleep in bedrooms on the second floor. The maid, the only other person in the dwelling, telephoned a volunteer fire company but was driven out by dense smoke when she attempted to reach the second floor. Three men made their way to a landing on the stairs before they also were forced out by the smoke, but a fourth man made it to the second floor and rescued the three other children. He then collapsed from smoke inhalation. Muldoon, 27, office clerk, arrived, learned that Daniel still was on the second floor, and ascended a ladder to a front bedroom window. He climbed inside and dropped to his knees below the smoke. Guided by Daniel’s cries, Muldoon crawled into the hall, where the smoke was denser. Heat increased as he made his way along the hall to the door of Daniel’s room within three feet of flames at the top of stairs leading to the kitchen. Muldoon crawled into the room and located Daniel. Forced to inhale smoke, which caused him to cough, he carried Daniel into the hall and felt his way along the wall. He moved into a bathroom but groped his way back into the hall and then to the front bedroom. Beginning to feel faint, Muldoon thrust his upper body through the window opening and lifted Daniel outside. A man climbed the ladder and took Daniel from him. Badly dazed from the smoke, Muldoon descended to the ground. He, the other man, and the four children were given oxygen, and they recovered.
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