St. Laurence High School Baseball Players Rescue Coach from Storm Blown Dugout Roof

John Samansky, a 42-year-old Chicago firefighter, was watching his son play baseball at St. Laurence High School in south suburban Burbank this afternoon when the weather turned suddenly and a wind shear tore off the roof of the dugout.

Part of roof landed on baseball coach Adam Lotus, who was outside the dugout when the winds picked up, and pinned him to the ground.

Samansky quickly rallied other players and parents and they lifted the roof of Lotus, who was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn with minor injuries, police said. "We were able to get the corner of the roof off of him, and we got him to the concession area, where the emergency medical technicians took over," Samansky said.

Samansky's son, Tom, had taken shelter inside the dugout with other players when he said the third of three wind gusts flipped the heavy, wooden roof off the cinder-block dugout.

The roof landed top-side on the ground about 20 feet behind the dugout, but the walls of the structure were left standing. "It happened in less than five seconds," he said of the micro burst. "It came out of nowhere."

The winds also apparently knocked some trees down near the school, at 5556 W. 77th St.

Thanks to Carmen Greco Jr.