CTA bus driver, passenger rescue 14 residents from burning South Shore homes

An ominous orange glow illuminated the otherwise dark horizon as Anastasios Adamopoulos drove his CTA bus route in South Shore early Monday morning.

As the bus got closer to the glow, Adamopoulos quickly realized it was coming from a massive fire engulfing two homes.

“The flames were reaching for the heavens, that’s how intense it was,” he said.

Adamopoulos, 63, who lives in South Shore, didn’t think twice. He pulled the bus over and jumped off with a passenger. Together they ran to the homes and alerted residents, who were able to escape the fire unscathed.

“We started banging on doors and yelling ‘fire, fire, fire!’ at the top of our lungs and just trying to wake as many people up and alert as many people as we possibly could,” Adamopoulos said, adding that he didn’t think about his own safety as he ran toward the flames. “The only thing I was focused on was getting the people out.”

Chicago police said no injuries were reported in the fires, which erupted about 2 a.m. in the 8000 block of South South Shore Drive. Fire officials said investigators were still piecing together what sparked them.

Adamopoulos said about 14 people, including several children, escaped from the two homes. He checked in with them to make sure no one was left inside. After reaching safety, residents sought shelter on his bus as firefighters arrived and doused the flames.

“Thank God everyone got out,” Adamopoulos said. The American Red Cross is helping those displaced from the fires.

Victor Hilitski/For The Sun-Times

“We applaud this operator’s quick thinking and brave actions to help fellow Chicagoans,” the CTA said in a statement.

The smell of smoke and charred wood lingered in the air Monday evening, hours after the fires were extinguished. One home that sustained the most damage was left without a roof or a back porch. Its blackened interior was still damp. It appeared to be a complete loss.

The other home suffered less extensive damage. Its windows were boarded up, and some of the siding appeared to have melted from the intense heat.

Victor Hilitski/For The Sun-Times

Neighbor Patrick Vital said he woke to see firefighters on the roof of the home next door, working to get a better angle on the flames.

“It was a healthy fire,” Vital said. “It was strong enough that we were concerned it would come over here.”

Vital said he is friendly with the family who lives in that home. One of the residents is a woman who suffers from dementia, he said. Adamopoulos and Vital said residents helped carry her out of the home and onto a CTA bus.

Adamopoulos, who’s been driving for the CTA for about a year, said he stayed at the scene for about 45 minutes, helping to comfort residents as they watched firefighters attempt to save their homes.

But Adamopoulos still had time left on his shift, so after making sure everyone was OK he got back on the bus and continued on his route. That same sense of duty is what compelled him to spring into action when he saw the flames.

“I don’t think I did anything more than what the next guy would do,” he said.