The blaze at 56th and Racine happened about 7 Monday morning.
Firefighters found a 26-year-old man perched on the ledge of a window on the top floor of the burning three-story building.
The firefighters threw up a ladder to reach the man and bring him down to safety.
His mother was able to escape the flames on her own.
"I had his hand at first," said Geraldine Russell. "He said, 'Mama just get out.' The house was smoked out. Then I come around here, my son, he bust out the window and he hanging out the window sill and I told him, 'Hold on, they coming to get you.'"
The rescued man was taken to a hospital suffering from burns as well as cuts from the broken window. Investigators are calling the fire suspicious.
The Chicago Fire Department says the Englewood fire in was started by flammable liquid poured in a stairwell.
