Feb 14, 2008 11:24 am US/Central Police Rescue Families From Cabrini-Green Fire 3 Officers Arrive On Scene Before Firefighters CHICAGO ― A tag team rescue effort by police officers and firefighters saved lives in a burning building in the Cabrini-Green public housing development Friday morning, including a little girl who took a firefighter's hand to make it to safety. The fire started about 2:30 a.m. on the fifth floor of a seven-story Chicago Housing Authority building at 911 N. Hudson Ave., Fire Media Affairs Chief Kevin MacGregor said. It was extinguished about 3 a.m., MacGregor said. As CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman reports, the emergency workers say they are not heroes and that they were just doing their jobs. But indisputably, watching what they did took a lot of courage. It could be called the definition of serving and protecting. Just ask people who witnessed it. "The fire was right here," said a man standing on the fifth floor gallery of the building. The officers who first saw the fire ran up five flights of stairs. When they got to the chain link fence-enclosed gallery, it was filled with smoke and flames.That didn't stop them. "People were yelling that there were people trapped up there," said Calumet Area police Detective Robert McVicker, 44, who responded to the scene. The officers knew they had to get to the trapped residents, so they ducked below the danger, using their flashlights. They then did some door-to-door work, pounding until residents responded. "We woke everybody up. People were sleeping and they didn't know what was happening," McVicker said. "We started yelling, 'Get out! Get out!' Everybody followed the order." McVicker -- with two other officers first on the scene -- helped rescue six other residents, none of whom were seriously hurt. South Chicago District police officer James Zega and Chicago Lawn District police officer David Fudacz, who were already on the ground floor of the complex performing building checks before firefighters arrived, saw smoke and called the fire department. McVicker, who carried the 4-year-old girl to safety, also arrived before firefighters. Flames and thick black smoke were seen coming from unit No. 506, which had its front door open but no one inside, police said. Zega, Fudacz and McVicker went inside the unit, but the heat was too intense and small explosions could be heard inside. "We had our flashlights out and you couldn't see one foot in front of you," said McVicker, an 18-year veteran who was working on his off day. With fire blowing down the hallway, the officers had to safely transport four children and three adults inside two units adjacent to the burning apartment, making their way past the fire unit and down the stairs. "Everybody [in the adjacent units] was running around in confusion," McVicker said. McVicker carried a 4-year-old girl to a fire truck. "I scooped her up. She shook her head in a yes motion when I asked if she was OK,'' he said. "We bundled her up took her to the fire truck and my partner kept her warm until an ambulance got there." Also during the firefight, firefighter Kelly Burns said he found a child too scared to move. "I just poked my head in I don't know if she was 7, 8; hard to tell she was just standing there in her pajamas crying," he said, "and I just said to her, I said, 'Hey honey, you coming? You want to get out of here.' I said, 'Honey, you coming with us?' and I gave her a little tug." He handed her over to officers, who carried her and other kids to safety. Several adults and children were taken to a hospital, but none were seriously hurt. All occupants of the building had gotten out of the building during the fire. "As we were going up they [several occupants of the building] were going down,'' McVicker said. Firefighters praised the work of the responding police officers. "I think the CPD has done a real nice job of getting everybody moving on the floor," Burns said. "They knew the cavalry was coming. When we got up there, the police were on the stairwell and the landing." The officers said there are about 10 units per floor, but the units were not fully occupied. The officers said it was unknown what started the fire or if it was considered suspicious. Residents were grateful for the police officers' actions. "They were brave. They were brave. They aren't like the Fire Department; they've got no mass. So they could have easily gotten hurt, you know what I'm saying, with the smoke," Jones said. "I'm thankful they were there." "Everybody got out OK," said a woman who said the fire started in her apartment. The blaze destroyed the entire apartment, but did not affect neighboring units. Only the residents of the unit where the fire started will be displaced, according to MacGregor, who did not know how many people lived in the apartment. Firefighters say preliminarily that an open flame in a bathroom ignited some articles of clothing, but the cause remained under investigation late Thursday morning.
