Elderly woman rescued from Arlington Heights fire by neighbor using sledgehammer

An elderly couple in Arlington Heights was recovering after flames engulfed their garage on Wednesday morning, and a neighbor came to the disabled woman's rescue with a sledgehammer.

The Arlington Heights Fire Department said they were called to the 1100 block of North Dryden Avenue around 10 a.m. for a house fire with people trapped.

When firefighters arrived, they found the home's single-car garage was fully engulfed in flames, officials said. One person had already escaped the home on their own, but another, a woman, had been trapped inside.

A neighbor used a sledgehammer to force open the home's locked front door and rescued the woman, fire officials said. She was carried safely out of the home.

The couple's son said his 90-year-old father is OK and was taken to the hospital to be treated for some minor smoke inhalation. He said his 85-year-old mother was the one rescued by the neighbor.

The family said the 90-year-old told them he had started his car when flames suddenly burst out of the hood. The fire quickly spread through the garage and engulfed the structure.

Rachel Marion was visiting her mother, who lives next door, and saw the whole thing unfold.

"His wife was still locked inside. She is disabled," she said. "And she couldn't unlock the door, so someone ran and got a sledgehammer, and they broke the door down so that they could get her out, and I had called 911, and as soon as they were pulling her out, the neighbors and the bystanders who stopped, that's when the fire department showed up."

One structure that neighbored the garage sustained minor damage, but firefighters were able to keep the garage fire from spreading to the home itself. Eventually, they struck it out. 

The fire department commended the neighbor's "quick and selfless actions" in rescuing the woman. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

The couple's family said they will spend the night at a relative's home and make sure gas service has resumed before they return.