Charles Gluckleder says he was able to save two people trapped in a burning house in Chicago Heights because he made a wrong turn on the way to work.
Gluckleder, heading north on Euclid Avenue from Steger around 8 a.m. Wednesday, turned onto 16th Street to get to Chicago Heights Nazarene Church and Daycare after missing his regular turn at 26th Street.
In the 300 block of 16th Street, he spotted flames coming out of a house and stopped and ran to the front door.
“I banged on the door and yelled,” he said, and a woman answered. “She had burns on her arm and hand. I think she was trying to help the two men inside.”
Firefighters had not yet arrived, so as the woman, Lee Barnes, rushed out of the house, Gluckleder headed upstairs and dropped to his stomach, crawling in the darkness, he said.
As he reached the top of the stairs, “I felt arms on the floor.”
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Gluckleder said he struggled to bring Tyree Miller Jr. down the stairs because Miller is a large man. Gluckleder said he rolled Miller Jr. down step by step, having to leave a couple of times to go downstairs for air.
Once he got the man to the first floor, three city workers who were at the scene dragged Miller Jr. from the house, he said.
Gluckleder then re-entered the house and rescued Tyree Miller Sr., 88, whom he also found on the floor at the top of the stairs. He said the elderly man “kept slipping in my hands. When I got him outside, I realized his skin was coming off.”
All three fire victims were transported to Franciscan St. James Health Medical Center in Chicago Heights, and the elder Miller was later airlifted to Loyola Medical Center in Maywood. A Loyola spokesman said Thursday evening that he could not comment on Miller Sr.’s condition.
A source in the Chicago Heights Fire Department, who didn’t have authority to speak to news media, said Miller Sr. had burns over 60 percent of his body, his son suffered from smoke inhalation, and Barnes, who also lives in the home, was treated for burns on her arm and hands.
Gluckleder was treated at St. James for smoke inhalation and was released.
In a statement, Chicago Heights Mayor David Gonzalez credited Gluckleder with saving the lives of the two men.
“Mr. Gluckleder’s heroic act helped prevent further injury or loss of life from this tragic event,” Gonzalez said. “He is to be commended for his courageous response as we pray for the Miller family.”
Another son of Miller Sr., Curtys Miller, of University Park, said a space heater ignited a window treatment on the second floor of the house. He said father has lived in the house for 50 years.
Dennis Sullivan is a freelance reporter.