WICKES, J.
Daniel T. Manning for petitioner. Robert Booth for respondents. WICKES, J. Petitioner brings this proceeding under section 205 of the General Municipal Law to recover for the death of her husband, a member of the Keeseville volunteer fire company or department, a volunteer fire company of the Village of Keeseville, Essex County, New York, who died on August 25, 1953, as a result of burns received in a fire in his own home on the previous day. The only evidence on the question of the exact time when decedent received the fatal burns is found in the testimony that the cellar stairs and hall were ablaze before decedent came upstairs and that the hall and cellar stairway were burned and charred; the decedent's statement to his daughter while in the hospital that he had "an awful hard time getting through the flames upstairs"; the testimony that the rear of decedent's shorts were on fire when he arrived on the second floor; and the testimony that the decedent's back and shoulders (the rear of his body) were severely burned. We think that the most reasonable inference to be drawn from this meagre testimony is that decedent received the burns from which he died as he was ascending the cellar stairs through the flames while on his way to rescue human lives endangered by the fire. The first duty of a volunteer fireman is to save human lives. Section 205 of the General Municipal Law is remedial and should be liberally construed. (Matter of Hommel v. Town of Saugerties, 253 App. Div. 84.) The fact that the fire was in decedent's own residence does not preclude a recovery. (Matter of Bennett v. Village of Wolcott, 177 Misc. 768, affd. 263 App. Div. 932.) Accordingly, I find that decedent died from injuries incurred while in the performance of his duties as an active member of the Keeseville volunteer fire company of the Village of Keeseville. I further find that petitioner is entitled to receive the compensation provided for in section 205 of the General Municipal Law. Submit judgment.