Evening star., 1923-07-06
Printer Who Saued 5 in Fire
Likely to Get Heroism Medal
Carnegie Board
No,O Investigating
Fred C.. Parker
Has Suffered Many
Hard BIOaUs Since
Act of Daring.

Barefooted and clad in a bathrobe,
Fred C. Parker battled his way
through intense flames which threat
ened to destroy his print shop and
home at 110S H street and rescued
his family--a wife, mother and three
children-and fireman, who had
been trapped. 1t was more than a
year and a half ago, New Year eve,
1921.
Parker's brave deed has almost
been blotted from his memory by time
and the adverse conditions that have
beset his life in recent months. To
his friends. however. he is still an
unsung hero, deserving of a reward
which they are endeavoring tirelessly
to secure for him--a Carnegie hero
medal. A special Investigator of the
Carnegie Hero Fund Commission is
now in Washington checking up the
details of the story Of how Parker
risked his life in saving his famliy
and the fireman from imminent death
Eighteen Hundred Medals Awarded.
In the nineteen years since the Car
negie Hero Fund Commission was Gre
ated and endowed by Andrew Carnegie,
almost $500 of the medals have been
given. Most of them were bronze. Not
quite 500 were silver. Only 1s were
gold. But every medal was given to
| some one who had risked his life Cor 10
relatives Of some one who had lost his
| life) trying to save that OF some other
human being who had no claim on him.
Parkers act of heroism apparently
| does not concern him. did what any
| other man would have done under the
circumstances" he said.
AS to the details of his heroic deed.
Parker would not talk. He cannot un-
1 derstand why he should be subjected to
| the spotlight Of publicity and public
praise for an inherent motive that i'm
PEELED him to risk his life for another.
Friends Tell story.
To one of Parkers most intimate
friends we must turn for the story that
| he refuses to tell-Sydney A. Schwartz,
prominent Washington attorney, who is
| leading the movement to have the
printer rewarded with a Carnegie medal.
| Amid the din of the New Year eve
l celebration of 1921, the Parker fam
! lily was asleep on the floor above the
print shop. Parker was awakened
| by the bursting in of his bedroom
door. Then came cloud OF smoke
| and fire.
| Covering two of his children who
! were asleep with a blanket Parker
! carried his wife. who had become
| overcome by the smoke out Of the
| window and over the roof to safety
next door. he came back TOT MS
children and mother, Mrs. Charles.
and performed the same life-saving
service.
Rescue of Fireman.
With his feet blistered and cut and
his hair singed. Parker returned to
the street to watch the work of the
| firemen. A cry for help from a voice
in the building aroused Parker once
more and against the insistent pro-
testations of the crowd in front of
the house, he fought his way through
the flames and dense smoke in the
print shop and on a landing midway
between the first and second floors
he found the unconscious form of L
fireman. With a last desperate effort
he carried the body upstairs to the
front window and signaled to the
firemen to put up ladder and carried
him to safety.
The name of the fireman Parker
rescued was not known for several
days, when a man who said his name
was Williamson came to the print
shop and thanked him for saving his
life. Since that day Parker has never
seen nor heard of the fireman.
Work During Epidemic.
The saving Of the lives Of his family
and the fireman, however. is but one
of Parker's many services to human
ity. During the influenza epidemic
he devoted most of his time to the
relief OF the stricken. for which he