By William Lee
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — Chicago Police Officer Brian Baader didn’t think twice about making his way into a fiery, smoky Far South Side home where a 60-year-old woman was trapped this morning (Dec. 16).
After he arrived at the scene of the blaze in the 10400 block of South King Drive about 6:50 a.m. and flames shot from a front window and engulfed a Christmas tree, a resident told the 33-year-old Calumet District patrolman her mother was still inside.
The trouble Baader had in finding the trapped woman on the home’s second floor got worse when he was hit with stinging smoke as he led her downstairs. As his lungs began to fill with smoke, like the cliche, he saw his life -- and his two young children -- flash before his eyes.
“There was a point inside where I wasn’t sure that I was going to make it out,” Baader said in a telephone interview Wednesday night. “If I tripped or anything like that, it wouldn’t have ended too well,” he said.
Both Baader and the woman made it safely outside. He was rushed to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn to be treated for smoke inhalation and released; she was treated and released from Advocate Trinity Hospital.
Despite his brush with the potentially deadly smoke and some ribbing from his fellow officers, Baader, a native of south suburban Crete, said he had no regrets, except perhaps for not taking a deeper breath before going in.
“I just couldn’t sit there, I’m not that guy,” the seven-year veteran said. “I don’t know, sitting there was just not the right thing to do.”
Chicago police said Baader would likely receive a life-saving award for his bravery. Baader downplayed any calls of him being a hero, saying a conversation with his daughter put things in perspective.
“She said ‘Dad, you help people, right? That’s what you do.’ Yeah, that’s what I do. I guess that’s all there is to it. I help people.”
Copyright 2009 Chicago Tribune