Thomas Wesley Galbraith, 27, farmer, died attempting to save Doris M. and Joan M. Hemness, 5 and 2, respectively, from burning, Wall, South Dakota, October 27, 1936. Doris and Joan were on the second floor of a two-story frame house when the house took fire. Unable to enter an unlocked door because of flames, Galbraith from the outside broke a window in the living-room; and he and his sister, who was the children’s mother, climbed in through the window. Heat was intense, and there was dense smoke. Galbraith began to ascend a stairway from the living-room toward the second floor, where there was much flame; and his later actions were not observed. Meanwhile Galbraith’s sister went to Galbraith’s infant son, who was in the living-room, and carried him out through the window. Two and a half minutes later she heard a sound, which she thought was the collapse of the second floor. Later the fire was extinguished, but only sections of the walls were standing. The bodies of Doris, Joan, and Galbraith were found close together in the debris.
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