A 35-year-old woman was in stable condition at St. James Hospital Medical Center in Chicago Heights Monday after leaping from the second-floor window of her University Park townhouse to escape a fire.
Alicia Riley broke her leg in the jump Sunday from her dwelling in the 800 block of Oakside Lane.
Police officers arriving on the scene ahead of firefighters found Riley lying near her townhouse door and shielded her from the flames until the firefighters and paramedics arrived moments later and took her to the hospital where surgery was performed on her leg Sunday night.
University Park Fire Chief David Litton said that because of the intensity of the fire by the time the smoke alarm went off in Riley’s townhouse, her decision to jump likely saved her life.
The fire gutted Riley’s two-story townhouse and burned into the walls of the townhouse units located on each side of her unit, Litton said. The cause of the blaze was not determined.