window. Mrs. Owen was lying unconscious on the floor with her dress ablaze. Walter beat out the flames and then wrapped his coat around her to protect her from the sparks and embers that were swirling through the window.
Laying the unconscious woman on the window-sill, Walter climbed out on the ladder. Then he reached over and took Mrs. Owen, placing her across his arms. Seeing that a slow descent through the flames bursting out of the windows on the floors below meant certain death, Walter wrapped his legs around the sides of the ladder and took hold of both sides with his hands, balancing Mrs. Owen across his arms.
"Catch us down there," he shouted and started to slide down the ladder through the flames and smoke, as though it had been greased.
For a few seconds he was hidden from view; then he reappeared with his clothes ablaze but with his burden still safe across his arms. Firemen caught him as he reached the sidewalk, and took Mrs. Owen who was still unconscious.
It was all the police reserves could do to keep the crowd from breaking through the fire lines to congratulate Walter and carry him off on their shoulders. They cheered again and again as he was hurried into the Harlem Hospital ambulance. His hands and face were scorched, but after his burns had been dressed at the hospital he gamily returned to his quarters in the fire station.
Mrs. Owen was the only occupant of the house who did not succeed in reaching the fire escapes in the rear of the apartment and thus getting out safely.
The fire started in the basement, evidently from an overheated furnace, and shooting up through the air shafts, spread into the apartments on the third, fourth, and fifth floors. As
