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Fire Destroys Melrose Park Motel

MELROSE PARK, Ill. (CBS)-- A fired destroyed a motel in Melrose Park and injured a woman early Monday morning.

The call for the fire came at 1:30 a.m., according to the Melrose Park Fire Department.

Tenants at the O'Hare Kitchenette Motel, located on Mannheim Road, rushed to help a woman they said was on fire.

"Her hair was on fire, so my son put it out," Ernestine Dinkins said.

Flames were seen shooting from the building, and video shows the second floor collapsed.

Another tenant told CBS 2 he heard crackling early Monday morning and went to check on the noise. He went to help the resident who was on fire as well as his own mother.

"So I went in and got a blanket, and I put her out," Alvin Willis said. "But she was trying to get back in there to get her cat. I kept telling her go downstairs, but she wouldn't move. But then I had to get my mother out because I was concerned about my mother."

A motel resident of three years said there had been fire warnings in the past. She said while all that matters is that she got her kids of safely, they did lose everything.

That woman was taken to a hospital. Several pets died in the fire.

The cause of the fire is not known at this time.

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