Neighbors save Des Plaines man from burning mobile home
A Des Plaines man burned when his mobile home caught fire in a natural gas explosion was pulled from the structure by a small group of neighbors who broke in to get him.
At the front of the pack was Myron Chorkawciw, 54, a longtime construction worker who was doing a crossword puzzle on his couch in a nearby unit when the explosion struck at about 5:20 p.m. Monday.
"It felt like a semi-truck hit my trailer," Chorkawciw said.
The incident occurred in the Town and Country Mobile Home Park at 815 E. Oakton St., just east of Maine West High School.
When Chorkawciw looked out his front window and saw his pickup truck still standing there unharmed, he knew there must have been another explanation.
He immediately thought about a closer neighbor who has two children. He went outside, smelled smoke and hurried toward the source.
About four neighbors quickly gathered around the burning trailer, whose roof was already blown off and hanging from one side.
The presence of the resident's car, with scorch marks on its side and a broken passenger side mirror, proved to everyone that he was still inside.
"My main concern was that someone was in there and we knew we had to get him out," Chorkawciw said.
Neighbors attempted to break the doors on either side, with one person using a push broom to break the window on one door.
Finally one door opened and the 48-year-old resident was seen standing inside wearing only a pair of shorts and with burns on his skin. Several small fires burned in various corners of the trailer.
The victim stood frozen in shock as the small gathering of neighbors urged him to come out in a variety of languages. Chorkawciw was able to add both English and Polish but the man seemed barely aware.
Finally the man took enough steps toward the door that Chorkawciw was able to reach in and pull him the last few feet by his arm.
An ambulance was on the scene about 30 seconds later.
The man was transported to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge and then moved to the burn unit at Loyola Medical Center in Maywood, where he remained in stable condition Wednesday.
"I don't know how this guy lived, I'm not kidding you," said another neighbor on the scene, Douglas Gundersen.
Apart from their own rescue efforts, neighbors were amazed that firefighters were able to keep all damage contained to the original unit.
"Luckily, it blew up," Chorkawciw said of the initial explosion. "If it had blown outward, it would have taken out these other units."
Des Plaines Fire Chief Alan Wax said fire investigators believe only a small fire existed in the moments after the explosion, allowing precious time for the rescue before flames spread throughout the mobile home.
While the cause of the fire remains under investigation, Chorkawciw said mobile home residents have to remain aware of how close the furnaces and stoves are in their units.
Neighbors interviewed afterward reported having smelled natural gas about an hour before the explosion. Wax said a lesson that can be learned from this incident is that natural gas odors should be reported immediately to authorities, as there is never a harmless explanation for the presence of the gas.