OAK FOREST, Ill. --
A disabled southwest suburban man is listed in critical condition Thursday evening after being rescued from a fire that swept through his two-story home.
Crews responded to a fire in a two-story frame home, at 5730 Dover Drive, in Oak Forest, at 8:38 a.m., an Oak Forest Fire Department dispatcher said.
Paralyzed from a fall off a roof last year, homeowner Jim Wheeler was asleep in a second-floor bedroom when the fire broke out.
Wheeler, in his 70s, is confined to a wheelchair and was trapped in the house, reportedly on the second floor.
Arriving firefighters arrived a short time later and carried the unconscious man out of the fiery house.
He was taken by ambulance to South Suburban Hospital in Hazel Crest before being airlifted to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood.
He was listed in critical condition Thursday evening.
A caregiver ran downstairs to see where the fire was coming from, but was turned away by the intense heat. He then ran back upstairs and tried unsuccessfully to wake Wheeler, even trying to lift him out of bed, but couldn't.
Wheeler suffered burns to more than 50 percent of his body, Oak Forest Fire Chief Terry Lipinski said.
Dozens of firefighters from about 10 departments took turns battling the blaze along the roof line, some 20 minutes after the initial call came in. Some blasted the fire with streams of water while others used pick axes to open holes in the roof.
Fire officials ruled the fire "an accident" and think it started in electrical wires attached to a downstairs computer.
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