The fire was so hot that Oak Lawn Fire Lt. Chuck Ehrenhaft never expected to find anyone alive.
He could barely see through his face mask Wednesday as he inched his way through the heavy smoke in a Hickory Hills apartment so hot that firehoses seared.
Then he looked down and saw what he believed to be a doll, until its tiny arms moved.
On the floor, next to the couch, lay a baby covered with debris. It was dressed in coveralls that had not caught fire.
Ehrenhaft grabbed the baby, whose eyes were open, and ran outside, yelling, “Get me an ambulance.”
The baby’s eyes never blinked, said Ehrenhaft, recalling that he was shaking “all over” after taking part in his first rescue after more than 18 years on the force.
Ehrenhaft, on his first day back at work after a two-week vacation, was credited with the dramatic rescue of 7-month-old Heba Ahmad from the third-floor apartment of a three-story, 12-unit apartment building at 7835 W. 89th Pl., in Hickory Hills.
No deaths were reported, but Heba, her 2-year-old sister, Nada, and their mother, Hanan Ahmad, 20, were in critical condition Wednesday night in the burn unit at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood.
Firefighters at the scene said the children appeared to be in better condition than their mother.
“The 4-year-old was even crying in the ambulance, which is a good sign,” said Roberts Park Assistant Fire Chief Ed Murphy.
“The baby was still breathing on its own when I handed it over to the paramedics,” said Ehrenhaft.
False fire alarms were frequent in the complex and residents had grown accustomed to ignoring them, fire officials said.
According to Detective Bob Troy of the Hickory Hills Police Department, the cause of the blaze appeared to be an electrical problem that started in the living room of a first-floor apartment.
All 12 families in the apartment building were displaced, he said.
Roberts Park Fire Chief Joseph Fijalkowski said Hanan Ahmad opened her front door and was overcome with a powerful blast of flames and heat that traveled up the front hallway.
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“We’re pretty sure the fire started in a first-floor apartment, either in the TV set or a chord going to the set,” Fijalkowski said. “A woman in the apartment said she first saw the fire coming up the wall behind the TV set. Then it set a sectional couch on fire.”
The woman escaped unharmed and rushed into a building next door and tried to call for help. But in her panic, she misdialed several times.
“We got the alarm at 10:45 (a.m.), and we are just four blocks away, but there was this long delay,” said Fijalkowski.
The flames shot out the first-floor apartment into the hallway. When Ahmad opened her apartment door, “it created a chimney effect,” because she had left her patio doors open, Fijalkowski said.
Residents stood in the drizzle after escaping, comparing stories. Khalid Affaneh was barefoot and wearing only his long underwear when he fled with his wife and children from their third-floor apartment.
Neighbors said they saw Ahmad on the third-floor balcony holding an infant.
“We ran outside, and my boyfriend was under the balcony yelling at her to drop the baby and he would catch it,” said Debbie Dabulskis, whose 6-year-old daughter alerted the adults to the fire when she spotted the flames from her bedroom window across the street. “We were yelling at her to jump, but she went back inside and then the firefighters came.”
However, other neighbors said the woman did not understand English.
“She and her husband were from Palestine,” said apartment manager Safear Hussain. “They only lived in my apartment building for about six months.”
“I just wish she hadn’t opened that door,” said Murphy. “After that, all it takes is one breath.”