William D. Bradshaw saved an indeterminate number of persons from a possible explosion, Morganton, North Carolina, March 21, 1989. Bradshaw, 36, security officer, was alerted to escaping propane gas from an opened valve of a tank outside one of the residential cottages of the state institution where he was employed. When he arrived at the scene, he found that the highly flammable gas had formed a large, white cloud that was beginning to the enter the basement of the cottage, where the slightest source of ignition would have precipitated an explosion. Bradshaw immediately entered the cloud and turned off the valve, then left for pliers and re-entered the cloud to tighten it. He then helped to evacuate the cottage, some of the residents of which were not ambulatory. The cloud soon dissipated, ceasing threat.
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