Excerpts from the Chicago Tribune:
A passerby who called 911 and an off-duty firefighter who dragged a woman out of a burning building are being credited following a weekend apartment fire that left a Hampshire woman in critical condition and injured two firefighters.
… the resident of the apartment … remained in critical condition Monday afternoon in Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood. Two firefighters sustained lesser injuries.
Lt. Eric Larson of the Hampshire Fire Protection District said the fire was phoned into 911 by a passerby about 10:17 p.m. Friday (2/6/15).
Even before the 911 center sent out an alarm, Deputy Chief Trevor Herrmann said, he happened to be near the fire …
Soon after the alarm went over the radio, Hampshire Police Officer Roy Maki arrived and went upstairs with Herrmann. Herrmann said they kicked open the apartment door. “You couldn’t see anything in there through the smoke but we heard groaning,” Herrmann said.
“Trevor crawled along the floor to stay below the smoke as much as he could, grabbed the woman and dragged her back to the doorway,” Fire Chief Bill Robinson said. “He had Officer Maki stay at the doorway and keep calling out to him so he could keep track of where the door was. It’s very easy to lose your bearings in a smoke-filled room.”
When the [the victim] was carried out, she had stopped breathing, the chief said. So Herrmann and two other firefighters performed CPR until she resumed breathing … [and] was taken to Presence Saint Joseph Hospital in Elgin, then transferred by helicopter to Loyola.
… Hampshire’s firefighters were assisted by the Pingree Grove, Burlington, Fox River & Countryside, Huntley, Marengo, Genoa-Kingston and Sycamore fire departments.
thanks Dan
