2 hurt in Blue Island mobile home fire: 'Blazing, just shooting out the door,' witnesses say

Saturday, February 19, 2022
BLUE ISLAND, Ill. (WLS) -- Two people are hospitalized following a mobile home fire in south suburban Blue Island.

Neighbors tell Eyewitness News one of the victims was elderly and possibly disabled and would not have easily been able to escape the flames.

It was heartbreaking for neighbors to witness firefighters racing to make entry as smoke poured from the mobile home.

"Oh, blazing. Blazing. Just shooting out the door. Just shooting out the door. I mean, really shooting out the door, nothing but just fire," said neighbor Robert James

Robert James and his daughter Sheila could only watch helplessly as firefighters pulled their elderly neighbor from her home.

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"She was unresponsive. When they took her out, they pulled her out, and they laid her on the little ground out there," said neighbor Sheila ware. "And then the guy, the fire department, he kept saying, bring the ladder, bring the ladder, bring it quick!"

Firefighters arrived around 1:30pm to the Forest View mobile home park near 139th Street and Division.

Neighbors said that elderly resident lived with her adult daughter and both were seen being pulled from the blaze.

"It's real tough. It's hard for anybody, but especially an elderly woman that's not capable of getting out in an emergency situation like that," said neighbor Stephen Hammer.

"It hit my heart because the fire department, the firefighter, he said to go home and hug your loved-ones. That's what he told us," said Ware.

The state fire marshal now investigating what sparked that fire while neighbors hope for the best.

"It's really tough. It's really tough. I can't even, can't even talk about it," said James.

The Blue Island city administrator said the two victims were taken to Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn but declined to provide information about their conditions.
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