BRIDGEPORT — Tenants were injured — and some had to make daring escapes — after a fire broke out in a Bridgeport building Tuesday evening.
Firefighters had extinguished the fire in the building at 2876 S. Archer Ave. by 8 p.m., but not before a number of residents of the three-story building were treated for injuries, according to witnesses and fire department personnel at the scene.
Three tenants of the building were brought to area hospital suffering from smoke inhalation, said Larry Langford, fire department spokesman. A woman had to be rescued from a third-floor apartment, he said.
A couple in a second-floor apartment told DNAinfo they had to jump out their back window and onto a nearby garage to escape the flames.
The couple were in their apartment Tuesday evening when a fire alarm went off, but the woman said they ignored it as one was going off in the last previous days.
"Some people in here don't know how to cook," said the woman. The couple asked that they not be identified by name.
But seconds later, smoke became visible to the two of them.
"It wasn't until we heard glass breaking that we knew it was for real," said the man.
The couple then tried to escape via a hallway, but it was too smoky, the woman said.
"The hallways were black," she said. "There was no way we were getting out [that way]."
They then decided that they had to jump from the second-story window of their apartment onto a garage that is connected to the rear of building.
"It was a little crazy," the man said.
They watched the fire from the alley behind the building and saw firefighters in their unit, breaking out windows. The woman said she was fairly certain their place was a total loss.
The Archer Avenue building has an unspecified number of apartments above a vacant storefront. Nearby commercial buildings did not appear to suffer damage from the fire.
3 transports from still and box 2800 block of archer. 2 serious 1 good. One patient was rescued from top floor. pic.twitter.com/VEB0NWf0dL
— Chicago Fire Media (@CFDMedia) March 30, 2016
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