William B. Armour rescued Ernest M. Pate from burning, Chattanooga, Tennessee, January 10, 1952. Ernest, 2, and his one-year-old brother were asleep in the bedroom of a one-story house when flames broke out at a stove and ignited the walls of an adjoining kitchen. No one else was in the house. Armour, 60, mason, observed smoke and ran 100 feet to the front door, which was locked, and forced it open. He heard Ernest gasping and groped 10 feet through dense smoke to the boy’s bed. Heat was intense. The smoke caused Armour to cough violently. As he raised Ernest and clasped him to his chest, flames burst through the bedroom wall three feet from Armour, scorching the back of his shirt. Crouching, he carried Ernest, who was unconscious, to the front door and thence outside. Unaware that the other child still was inside he continued to the yard of his own home with Ernest and revived him. Ernest’s mother arrived and informed Armour of the other child. The flames by then had spread to the walls and ceiling of the bedroom and filled the doorway. Armour retraced his course to the house and extending a rake into the bedroom pulled the brother’s crib to the doorway but was unable to reach the child, who perished in the fire. The entire interior of the house was gutted by the flames. Ernest had burns of the ear and arm but recovered. Armour sustained first- and second-degree burns of the hands and forearms which healed. 42487-3784
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42487-3784