State Traffic Sergeant

California Highway Patrol

7/5/1973

Special Act Award (Gold)

On July 5, 1973, at approximately 4:00 a.m., Sergeant Stamelos was cruising northbound on the San Gabriel River Freeway through the City of Whittier when he observed an apparently unattended structural fire two blocks to his left. He radioed for assistance and left the freeway at the next off ramp to head back to the scene. His search for the blaze led him to a street behind what turned out to be a one-story residence, its roof engulfed in flames that shoot some 25 feet into the air. He climbed the rear fence of the burning house and forced entry through the back door into the kitchen area where he almost overran a small, frightened girl fumbling in the smoke. Eight other children and the parents, he learned were asleep in the home. With flames now beginning to lick into the interior, Sergeant Stamelos followed the girl to the bedrooms of her sisters and brothers. He gathered as many of the children as he could and guided them out through the front door of the house. There he placed them in the care of the neighbor asking the man to let him know when he had all the nine youngsters. The sergeant returned a second and third time for the remaining children as burning rafters and debris began falling form the ceiling about them. The place was now an inferno, but Sergeant Stamelos, despite pleas to give up his effort and warnings that it was too great of a risk to take, ran once again into the fiery mass to seek the sleeping parents somewhere toward the back of the house. The daring rescue ended when he led the couple through the kitchen to safety and to the children huddled together across the street from their burning home. Not done yet, Sergeant Stamelos began awakening next-door neighbors whose homes were also threatened. It was then that several fire units arrived in response to his call 20 minutes earlier. As firefighters began laying their hoses to attack the flames, he returned to this patrol car and his vigil on the freeway.