Off-duty cop helps man who escaped blaze in apartment
Chicago police Officer JohnHanlon was running an errand around noon on his off day Monday when he saw a plume of black smoke billowing from a North Side apartment building.
Hanlon, a Town Hall district tactical team officer who has been with the department for almost six years, then heard glass break and saw a man punching out a small window. The man then dove out of the window and onto the ground several feet below to escape the fire, seriously injuring his arm.
The blaze had broken out in a building in the 500 block of North Avenue in the Old Town neighborhood.
The officer pulled his car into a lot across the street from the building, which was enveloped in smoke, and was able to render aid until emergency crews arrived.
“I ran across the street to help him but there was a small fence dividing us,”
Hanlon said, speaking of the lifesaving incident Saturday from the North Side’s TownHall district.
Another good Samaritan boosted the man over the fence while Hanlon ran back to his car to retrieve a first aid kit that he keeps in his personal vehicle, he said.
When he returned, Hanlon noticed the man appeared to have broken his arm and had several serious cuts after falling about 6 feet through the window.
“Even without having gone to medical school, it was very clear his bone was broken in multiple places,” Hanlon said.
But most concerning were the cuts, where blood was gushing from the man’s arm.
Hanlon tied a tourniquet from the first aid kit around the man’s arm, and the bleeding slowed. He stayed until paramedics arrived, and the man, who survived, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.