Stefano Esposito
The Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Fire Capt. Pat Blake shrugged, and generally looked uncomfortable Tuesday afternoon when the "hero" word came up.

"Ah, jeez," the silver-haired firefighter told media in the firehouse at 50th and South Union. "It's part of our job."

Darnetta Fleming didn't use the "H" word either, but she didn't need to.

"I want to thank you so much," Fleming, 57, told the firehouse crew. A few hours earlier, in the pre-dawn darkness, she'd been clinging to a second-floor window ledge and preparing to jump.

But as flames enveloped Fleming's South Side two-flat, fire crews rescued her and her disabled younger brother, Dennis Rabb, 54. Rabb has nerve damage in his hands, his sister said.

Investigators found an "ignition fluid" on the back porch, said Fire Department spokeswoman Eve Rodriguez.

Fleming said she was asleep when her brother woke her and said smoke and flames were blocking the only way out -- at the rear of the 5228 S. Morgan St. building.

Fleming said she grabbed her brother's hand and told him they would have to jump.

"I thought . . . I may be able to land on the tree," Fleming said. "I was just hysterical."

Police arrived before firefighters and told Fleming to not jump. Fire trucks were on the way, officers told her.

During the fire, Rabb said, '' 'We're trapped. We're not going to make it,' " Fleming recalled. "I said, 'Oh, yes, we are.' "

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