A tow truck driver from Manteno who was on Chicago's South Side to repossess a car early Tuesday didn't hesitate when he saw smoke and heard a mother scream that her babies were trapped in a burning apartment.
David Johns Jr. said he went into the building, kicked in doors, grabbed a fire extinguisher and crawled through smoke so thick he couldn't see more than a foot ahead, even with a flashlight.
But he couldn't get to the children. Firefighters found the body of 3-year-old Destiny Myles on the floor of the one-bedroom apartment and the body of 1-year-old Jeremiah Myles in his crib.
"I feel bad for the mom and I feel bad that I couldn't do more," said Johns, 36. "I tried. I wanted her to know because I didn't have the opportunity to say it to her. That I tried with everything I had to make it inside that room. I pushed myself physically, mentally, as far as I could make it.
"Her screaming, 'My babies, my babies' will burn in my brain."
The early morning fire resulted from an attempt by the victims' 6-year-old brother to reheat a pizza on top of the stove in the family's first-floor apartment in the Concordia Place complex at 319 E. 130th St., fire officials said.
The 6-year-old boy escaped harm. The children's mother, Alicia Myles, who relatives said is seven months pregnant, suffered smoke inhalation and was taken to Roseland Community Hospital, where late Tuesday afternoon she was reported in improving condition.
It was around 3 a.m. when Johns noticed white smoke that looked like steam coming from the apartment building.
"But then I could smell burning. I turned the truck and I floored it over there," he said.
Alicia Myles had been awakened by a smoke alarm and got out of the apartment with the 6-year-old, Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said. But the door either automatically locked or jammed behind her and she couldn't get back in, he said.
Johns jumped out of his truck and heard Alicia Myles' cries for help. She was overwhelmed and couldn't even tell Johns where her children were in the three-story apartment building.
"So I just started kicking in the doors of the first-floor units and telling people they needed to get out," he said.
He grabbed a small fire extinguisher from one of the residents and finally reached the apartment where the children were trapped.
"I did hear the faint sound of a child. ... It was heart-wrenching" said Johns later Tuesday, breaking down. "I know now that it was probably the sound of them choking. I just couldn't make it over there. I tried my hardest, I really, really did."
He ran outside to catch his breath and grabbed a fire extinguisher from his truck. He dashed back in and "started spraying it frantically around. Then I heard the sound of a siren."
It was police Sgt. Mike Saladino from the Calumet District, who had been on patrol two blocks away when he heard the fire call.
"He and I both tried to get through that door, and we literally grabbed each other and kind of pulled each other back and the whole room just went up in flames," Johns said. "There was nothing we could do."
Saladino said the fire was overwhelming. "We were on our hands and knees trying to get back there," the officer said as he left MetroSouth Medical Center in Blue Island, where he was treated for smoke inhalation.
Saladino said he couldn't bring himself to look at the two tiny bodies as they were taken away.
"I feel terrible for the family. It's a terrible situation for anybody," he said.
The 6-year-old boy doesn't seem to realize what happened, said Katherina Myles-Cooper, Alicia Myles' mother.
"He doesn't know he's not going to see (his brother and sister) anymore, he doesn't fully understand," Myles-Cooper said.
Johns said he worked as the emergency management director for Orland Park more than a decade ago and has Red Cross training. He now shares a bond with Saladino, an 11-year veteran of the police force. "I told him maybe we'll go out for a beer."
Saladino sounded a lot like Johns while explaining his actions.
"That's what we signed up for, that's what we do," he said. "At the time, I'm not thinking about me, I'm thinking about them. We're there to help people who can't help themselves. If I wasn't willing to do that, then I wound up in the wrong profession."
Copyright 2012 - Chicago Tribune
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
