Man dies in Merrionette Park Oak Lane mobile home fire on Homan Avenue, neighbors and officials say

MERRIONETTE PARK, Ill. (WLS) — A man in his 70s was killed when a fire broke out in a mobile home in Merrionette Park Sunday night, his neighbors and fire officials said.

Firefighters were called to the scene at about 7:09 p.m. in the 11700-block of South Homan Avenue.

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The fire department said one mobile home was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived and one person inside that home was found dead.

Two other people were treated on the scene for smoke inhalation, officials said.

The fire consumed not just the one mobile home, it also caused serious damage to two others on either end of it.

Officials have not yet identified the man killed, but neighbors said he was a longtime resident.

Only charred remains of the man’s home were left Monday.

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Neighbors said they scrambled to try to help during the blaze.

“Everyone knew that he was in there. And it was unbelievable,” neighbor Erin McBride said.

The flames could be seen on McBride’s security camera inside Merrionette Park’s Oak Lane community.

“It was so close. And it was just so quick. It happened, and it spread so quickly,” she said.

Unwilling to wait for the fire department, some of the neighbors tried unsuccessfully to break through the door to get their neighbor out.

“The whole doorway was burnt up. You couldn’t get in the door. We tried breaking out the windows to call him to get to the window. We could pull him through or do anything but, at that point another neighbor came over this way with a police officer and another boom went off and the whole front. It was impossible,” neighbor Carol Jankowski said.

“He was on oxygen. He didn’t go out much. He was a decent neighbor. We came over several times when he needed help. It’s sad,” Jankowski said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

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