Texans You Should Know is a series highlighting overlooked figures and events from Texas history. The sailors were on fire. From Galveston’s Pier 20, LeRoy Colombo watched in shock as several men, their clothes burning, jumped into the water from a flame-engulfed tugboat. An explosion in a gasoline-laced sewer pipe had just set fire to their vessel. Colombo was deaf, so he hadn’t heard the boom—but he had felt the wooden pier shake. Without missing a beat, he fought his way through billowing black smoke, dived into the Gulf, and swam beneath a sheet of burning oil to reach two drowning men. One struggled and started to drag Colombo under, so the 22-year-old knocked him out and hauled both men to shore. There, he collapsed on…
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