When a fire started in her family’s Christmas tree and spread through the entire house Saturday, Cristina Davalos had to toss her 3-year-old twins out of a second-floor window into her husband’s waiting arms.
Miguel Davalos had already gotten the other two children in the home out of the house, but could not get back inside to help his wife or the infants upstairs. After catching his twin daughters, he told his wife to jump from the window herself.
Cristina Davalos and one of the twin girls are still recovering from their injuries in the intensive care unit at Loyola University Hospital, according to the woman’s sister, Erika Gutierrez. Miguel Davalos was discharged Monday but remains with his wife.
“It’s been hard for all of us,” Gutierrez said of her family.
Her sister’s recovery will likely take a bit longer, Gutierrez said, but both she and the infant are expected to make a full recovery. Cristina Davalos has fractures on her hip and back, along with a head injury and burns, her sister said.
Davalos lived at the home in the 4700 block of Dumoulin Avenue with her husband and their five children, four of whom were home with their parents when the fire broke out just before 9 a.m. Saturday. The oldest child, 14, was in school at the time.
The home was determined to be “a total loss” and uninhabitable, according to a news release from the Lisle-Woodridge Fire Protection District.
“Working smoke detectors helped notify the occupants of the fire before it was too late,” another news release said Monday. “Thankfully, the members of this family survived this tragic event.”
The four children not currently in the hospital are now staying in Bolingbrook with Gutierrez, who is no stranger to having lots of kids around. She and Davalos were two of seven children growing up.
“We’re a big family and we’re very close,” Gutierrez said. “We get together for weekends, birthdays, holidays.”
The younger children, ages three and six, are aware of what happened and are doing fine, their aunt said. The older ones, ages 12 and 14, are recovering well but seem more scared. As most of the family’s possessions were destroyed in the fire, community members in Lisle have rallied to help in the wake of the loss.
Amy Narot, director of community impact at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lisle, has been coordinating with St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church, where the Davalos family attends services, to set up gift card donation sites across the community.
“People wanted to drop off donations of clothes and food, but the family doesn’t have the space right now,” Narot said. Instead, the donation sites at the two churches and several Lisle schools will help get gift cards to the family so they can purchase items as they are needed.
“I’ve been getting a lot of calls and emails, a lot of people asking what they can do to help,” said Vicente Fernandez, a part-time coordinator for St. Joan of Arc. “Lisle has a history of (people) supporting one another.”
Gutierrez was also encouraged by friends to set up a GoFundMe for her sister’s family.
“Everyone had to tell me to make one, it was hard to think about anything else for me right after,” Gutierrez said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the page had raised over $18,000 of the $100,000 goal. The donations and warm wishes from community members will be helpful for giving Davalos’ children some semblance of a normal Christmas, their aunt said, but the adults only want one thing this season.
“We’re not really thinking about the holidays right now,” Gutierrez said. “We just hope our sister recovers.”
mkloub@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @LessIsMoh
