Two Injured After Jumping Out Window To Escape Tinley Park Fire
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Two men jumped from a second-floor window in southwest suburban Tinley Park, to escape a fire that quickly engulfed a split-level home early Friday.
The blaze started around 2:15 a.m. in a first-floor bedroom of a home in the 7600 block of West 160th Place. Christina Campa was getting ready for work, when she noticed sparks coming out of the wall near an outlet.
She quickly warned her boyfriend, who then warned two other men they needed to get out from their upper-story bedrooms.
Homeowner Edward Czarnecki said, within 30 seconds, a good deal of the building was engulfed in flames.
"I ran back down the stairs, and the smoke was really, really heavy at that point. I looked inside the room, and the bedroom downstairs was completely engulfed in flames," he said.
The two men on the upper floor tried to make their way down the stairs, but were blocked by heavy smoke, so they jumped from the second-floor windows.
Czarnecki said one man was skittish about jumping. He said he told the man, "You have to get out of there. You have to get out of there now, and he said, 'I can't fit. I can't do it,' and he was really in distress, so he finally wiggled his way enough so that he could get out, and he did get through the window, and jump, and hurt himself pretty badly, I'm afraid."
One man landed on the grass outside, the other landed on the concrete, and was seriously injured, and had to be dragged away from the burning home.
Both men were taken to the hospital to be treated for their injuries.
Campa said only one of her three cats made it out of the fire.