THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT  
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, December 21, 1995            TAG: 9512210354
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   53 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: ***************************************************************** Lonnie Blow Jr., who saved a 3-year-old girl from a burning house, lives and teaches in Norfolk; he taught in Portsmouth at the time of the rescue. A MetroNews headline erroneously described him as a Portsmouth resident. Correction published in The Virginian-Pilot on Saturday, December 23, 1995, on page A2. ***************************************************************** PORTSMOUTH MAN IS HONORED FOR SAVING GIRL, 3

A Portsmouth schoolteacher who put his own life in danger to save a 3-year-old girl from a burning house was one of 21 people honored Wednesday by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission.

Lonnie Blow Jr., then 35, was grading exams at the Emily Spong Center on Jan. 26 when he heard a security officer yell, ``A house is on fire!''

Blow, a social studies teacher, ran outside and saw smoke pouring from every window of the house in the 2200 block of Piedmont Ave. A woman staggered out, covered in soot. ``She was saying, `My baby, please save my baby,' '' Blow recalled a day afterward.

Blow ran inside, ignoring the blast of heat and smoke, dropped to the floor and began pushing himself along inside the house. ``I couldn't see anything, but I heard the baby crying from my right side.''

He could barely breathe. ``Smoke went up my nose and down my throat and cut my wind off,'' he said. ``I thought, `Am I going to die in this house?' ''

He found the terrified girl curled up on the floor. He picked her up and crawled back to the door.

Fire officials later told Blow that he was still alive because he hugged the floor inside the burning building.

``They said if I stood up I probably would have died instantly,'' he said. ``The heat would have singed my lungs.''

In the aftermath, he said he hadn't considered the dangers.

``I didn't think about it at the time,'' Blow said. ``I just thought we didn't have time for 911 or anybody.''

The Pittsburgh-based Carnegie commission, founded by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie in 1904, has honored 7,970 people for risking their lives to save others. Each hero receives $2,500 and a medal.

The awards are presented about six times a year; 89 people were honored in 1995.

KEYWORDS: RESCUES HERO by CNB