Oliver M. Hornsby, 20, dishwasher, saved Jerald T. Childers, 39, truck driver, from suffocation, Las Vegas, Nevada, September 10, 1952. At night while crossing an open field, Childers accidentally stumbled into a pit filled with locomotive fuel-oil sludge having the consistency of soft tar. The pit was 75 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 12 feet deep. Childers’s feet immediately became caught in the sludge, and he fell face downward six feet from the side of the pit and began sinking. Two men who had heard Childers calling for help notified Hornsby of the accident. Running 300 feet to the side of the pit, Hornsby dimly observed Childers, who had turned onto his back and was immersed almost to his forehead in the sludge and was badly dazed. Without protection and aware that Childers might soon submerge in the sludge and be suffocated, Hornsby entered the pit and stepped across the surface to within two feet of him. Hornsby’s feet at once became trapped as he squatted and uncovered Childers’s head. Supporting Childers’s head above the surface, Hornsby sank deeper into the sludge and repeatedly called for help. His feet came in contact with an automobile tire three feet below the surface, Hornsby straddled the tire and succeeded in lessening his descent slightly but continued steadily downward in the sludge and was immersed to his armpits within 10 minutes after he first had reached Childers. A policeman who arrived sighted them with his searchlight and summoned the fire department. A rope was thrown to Hornsby, and he fastened it to Childers. Firemen pulling in unison on the rope made repeated attempts to free Childers but could not dislodge him. Ladders and planks were placed atop the surface, and firemen equiped with shovels reached Childers and Hornsby and finally extricated them in 45 minutes. Childers and Hornsby were covered with the sludge, and each suffered burns of the body and arms from contact with irritants in the sludge. Both recovered. 3861-42660
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