Des Plaines man honored for rescuing neighbor from house fire
"I'm flabbergasted," a nervous Myron Chorkawciw said Monday before his 15 seconds in the spotlight were up.
Chorkawciw, 54, a longtime construction worker, was recognized as a hero Monday night by the Des Plaines fire department and city council for pulling a neighbor out of a burning mobile home March 8.
"It's not the first time I've done something like this," said Chorkawciw, adding he never expected to be lauded for doing what anyone would have done for a fellow human being. "I just did what to me was normal. I hope and wish if I was in that predicament somebody would help me."
Chorkawciw was doing a crossword puzzle on his couch when he heard the explosion at about 5:20 p.m. March 8 from a nearby unit in the Town and Country Mobile Home Park, at 815 E. Oakton St., near Maine West High School.
He led a small group of residents to help a neighbor trapped inside a mobile home left in flames by a natural gas explosion.
"I knew the guy was in there, and when the roof blew off of it, I knew he had to get out," Chorkawciw said.
Several neighbors tried to break the doors on either side, and one person used a push broom to break the window on one door.
When a door finally opened, the home's 48-year-old resident was standing inside, frozen in shock, with burns on his skin and wearing only a pair of shorts.
With neighbors urging the man out, he gradually made his way toward the door. When he was near enough, Chorkawciw reached inside, grabbed the man by the wrist and pulled him to safety.
An ambulance arrived about 30 seconds later and transported the victim to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. He later was moved to the burn unit at Loyola Medical Center in Maywood.
For a while, the victim's family kept in touch with Chorkawciw giving him updates of his condition.
"I'm hoping he's OK," Chorkawciw said. "He was burned pretty bad."
Chorkawciw received a certificate for his heroism from Des Plaines. He also was honored with a proclamation by the state of Illinois and a Certificate of Appreciation from the Illinois Department of Public Health for the rescue.
"We definitely wanted to say thank you," Des Plaines Fire Chief Alan Wax said Monday. "It's not something everybody would have done."
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<li><a href="/story/?id=364996">Neighbors save Des Plaines man from burning mobile home <span class="date">[03/10/10]</span></a></li>
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