MOUNT GREENWOOD — Reina Murillo and her son, Zachary, tore out of their Mount Greenwood home around 7:30 p.m. Monday when smoke alarms sounded.
She stood outside in the rain at 10855 S. Central Park Ave. wearing her nightgown for only moments before a neighbor lent her a robe. Someone else gave her a pair of jogging pants, socks and shoes.
Her husband, Pedro Gonzalez, returned from the store to find his home surrounded by fire trucks. He too was met with the same hospitality from concerned neighbors and first responders.
"My husband said, 'I have a jacket on. I don't even know whose jacket it is,'" Reina Murillo said Tuesday.
There were no injuries as a result of the basement fire that left the home uninhabitable, said Murillo, who has lived in the house on the Far Southwest Side for about a decade.
She fell twice on her knee trying to get out of the house. Murillo refused medical treatment on the scene but said she'll likely see a doctor in the coming days. Meanwhile, she's been wearing a brace and dealing with the pain.
The fire began in the part of the house that was used as a family playroom and a bedroom for Murillo's 18-year-old daughter, Alexis.
Murillo said firefighters were unable to pinpoint the precise cause of the fire but suspected it was related to an electrical malfunction.
Meanwhile, smoke from the fire saturated everything within the modest home. A sooty film covered the front door Tuesday. Firefighters also broke windows and cut a hole in the roof to vent the smoke.
"There were at least three to four fire trucks that were here," said Murillo, who is staying with her parents just four blocks away.
Firefighters were even able to save the family dog, Pierre. The Chihuahua mix hid in her son's bedroom as smoke began to fill the house, she said.
"The firemen and policemen, they did an excellent job," Murillo said.
Meanwhile, Alexis Murillo will soon return home from the University of Minnesota. The outgoing freshman graduated from the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences in Mount Greenwood last year.
Her mother felt bad for her daughter as all of her high school awards and medals were destroyed in the fire.
"She worked really hard in high school," Reina Murillo said.
As for her 11-year-old son, Zachary, Murillo took some clothes out of the house Tuesday, including some school uniforms for the student at Mount Greenwood Elementary School. Despite going through the wash, the clothes still reeked of smoke.
Zachary Gonzalez-Murillo also has Type 1 diabetes. And while his insulin was protected in an upstairs refrigerator, many of his supplies melted in the fire. Her husband also has asthma, and he needs new supplies too.
"These items are replaceable but very hard to replace," she said.
Even more friends and neighbors have reached out in the aftermath of the fire offering help. Murillo said she could use gift cards to Target and Wal-Mart as she needs to buy many essentials that were either destroyed or polluted in the blaze.
The gift cards can be mailed or dropped off at her parent's home at 10819 S. Hamlin Ave.
Many of the offers to help came following a Facebook post where Murillo thanked everyone for their assistance Monday night. She even apologized as she was unable to recognize many of the good Samaritans at the time of the fire since she fled the home without her eyeglasses.
"I didn't initially post it to get anything. I just wanted to thank my neighbors," she said.
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