UPDATE: Man badly burned, leaps from second-floor window

A good Samaritan driving past a burning house Tuesday in northeast Colorado Springs rushed past the flames and smoke in search of anyone trapped inside.

Finding no one, he ran outside to the back of the home, where he spotted a man, who appeared to be on fire, leaning out a second-floor window preparing to jump. He and another passerby went back into the home to get a mattress to break his fall, but by the time they had lugged it outside, the injured man had already leaped.

“They put the burn victim on the mattress and moved him away from the house,” Colorado Springs Fire Department spokesman Lt. Carl Miller said.

The victim suffered “significant” burns from the blaze, which began at about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at 6687 Annanhill Place, just east of Security Service Field, Miller said. He was taken to a Colorado Springs hospital and fire officials were expecting him to be flown to a burn unit at a Denver hospital.

No names were released.

The home is owned by Nam Nguyen, according to El Paso County assessor’s records.

Two other people, an infant and a woman, escaped the fire unharmed, Miller said.

Wade Sissel, 13, who lives next door and had stayed home from school sick, said he was watching TV when he heard the doorbell being rung repeatedly. The woman who had fled the burning home was at the front door and frantically asked him to call 911, explaining there was an injured man hanging out a window.

“He was screaming for help,” Wade said. “I was terrified.”

Firefighters are unsure how the fire began. It took 20 firefighters about 20 minutes to put it out.

The roof continued to smolder more than two hours after the fire began. Damage from the blaze was mostly contained to the second story, northwest corner of the beige house.