3 rescued from Chicago Heights fire

CHICAGO HEIGHTS, Ill. (WLS) -- A Good Samaritan pulled three people from a burning home in south suburban Chicago Heights Wednesday morning. Officials aren't providing details, but family members said the three were badly burned.

Charles Gluckleder, a maintenance worker at a nearby church, was on his way to work when he saw smoke at the home in the 300 block of West 16th Street.

"One guy, I dragged him to the top of the stairs. He's a lot bigger than me. No way I could get him up. So when I pulled him to the top of the stairs, I tried getting him over, and we both tumbled over the stairs," Charles Gluckleder said.

The victims were identified as Tyree Miller, 88; his companion, Chong Lee Barnes, 65; and his son, Tyree Miller Junior, 65, according to Miller's daughter, Marsha.

"That spot right there, right where they're at. You see how badly it's burned? That's their bedroom," Marsha Miller said.

Flames were shooting out of the roof when Chicago fire crews arrived around 9 a.m.

"Somebody said he got, the firemen, they saw the firemen pulling him down the stairs and he was burned pretty bad," Renee Etheridge, neighbor, said.

Miller and Tyree Jr. were taken to Loyola Hospital with burns, she said. Drapery too close to a space heater may have caught fire, she said. The century-old mansion was once a hospital.

"It's tragic. It's a tragedy. It's a beautiful house, but now it's all messed up," Kurtys Miller, son, said.