The scent of burning hair permeated the smoky air as Michael Thomas descended an escalator at the Clark/Lake Blue Line subway station where he saw a woman lying on the platform Monday night.
“She had severe burns all over her upper torso and half of her scalp was burnt off,” Thomas, 40, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “She was lucid and conscious and talking. I believe I overheard something along the lines of, ‘I can’t believe I’m on fire.'”
Meanwhile, Chicago police said they have taken into custody a “person of interest,” though no charges have been announced.
The 26-year-old woman was on a train around 9:25 p.m. in the 100 block of West Lake Street when she began arguing with a man who was about 45 years old when the man poured a liquid on her and ignited it, Chicago police said.
The train came to a stop, and the man fled, while the victim fell through the doors and tumbled to the ground, police said.
Though firefighters and police were not on the scene yet, the fire was already out after bystanders helped extinguish the blaze when Thomas joined a group of about “a couple dozen people” who gathered around her.
One woman was still crouching over her, holding the hand of the 26-year-old, comforting her.
“It’s going to be OK,” she told the woman, said Thomas.
Others mostly stood in silence or recorded on their phones.
“That was a saddening sort of situation to witness,” Thomas said of onlookers who recorded. “I don’t necessarily fault anybody. I think the idea of filming or taking pictures of someone in such a distressed state just shows a lack of compassion and a lack of empathy for the moment.”
As a Chicago Fire Department truck pulled up at Wacker Drive and Clark Street, a dispatcher came over police radio and described 911 calls she’d been taking that indicated two people, possibly civilians, were “attending” to a person lying on the platform at 124 W. Lake St. An officer responded, saying the person suffered “third-degree burns around the body.”
“We’re also hearing her cellphone exploded’’ and possibly set her on fire, the dispatcher said. A few minutes later an officer then confirmed the cellphone exploded but said the victim was “now saying someone did pour liquid on her.”
CTA video surveillance apparently captured a possible attacker, with “scruffy facial hair,” but not a full beard, leaving the train, according to a dispatcher. It was not clear if that person was arrested.
Another citywide dispatcher said he was taking in “numerous” 911 calls about the arson. The victim, he said, was “conscious and breathing” at the moment, according to the dispatcher, who added firefighters were on the way there. Meanwhile, “people were able to put out the fire.”
Firefighters put out the blaze and took the woman, who suffered severe burns to her body, to Stroger Hospital in critical condition, police said.
Thomas was relieved to learn that the woman was still alive and said he hopes the medical treatment she’s receiving makes her “as comfortable as possible.”
“I hope she pulls through,” Thomas said. “I hope for the very best for her.”
In a written statement, the CTA said it is working with authorities.
“The CTA has been working closely with the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and the Public Transportation Unit detectives embedded at the Strategic Decision Support Center (SDSC) dedicated to CTA, to support their investigation and ensure the offender is quickly apprehended,” according to the statement.
