Rufus W. Grant rescued Jerry R. Leggette and four others from burning, North Charleston, South Carolina, May 26, 1947. At night Jerry, 17 months old, his parents, his two young brothers, and his grandmother were asleep in two bedrooms on one side of their one-story frame home, when fire broke out in another part of the home; and dense smoke spread to the bedrooms, causing all the occupants eventually to be overcome. After Grant, 44, garbage collector, had discovered the outside doors were locked, the sash of a window of one of the bedrooms was removed by another man; and Grant climbed through the window. Smoke was so dense he could not use a flashlight effectively. Protecting his nose with a handkerchief, Grant groped and found Jerry on the floor, carried him a few feet to the window, and handed him outside. In succession he then crawled to and carried to the window each of four others, who lay at various points in the same room, protecting his nose as he groped for each and pausing at the window only a moment for a breath of outside air between rescues. He then got out of the window to the ground, where he fell down from dizziness and coughed for 15 minutes. A brother of Jerry’s was removed by others through a window of the second bedroom, but he had suffered fatal burns. Firemen arrived and extinguished the fire. The grandmother was not burned but died eight days later from pneumonia. All others rescued by Grant suffered from smoke poisoning, and the parents also sustained serious burns. Grant sustained minor lacerations of his hands and wrists and suffered nervous spells for several days. 41055-3558
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41055-3558