HOBART | Rosa Alvarez and her boyfriend Jose Perez were awakened early Tuesday morning by a man banging on the door of their second-floor apartment.

Alvarez is 8 1/2 months pregnant, and her 3-year-old son, Jordan, was sleeping in the next room.

"We got scared," Alvarez said, "so me and my boyfriend went to the door and when we opened it, we saw nothing but flames coming at us."

The two ran back to their bedroom.

"My boyfriend broke the screen to the windows. The man standing outside, the same one who knocked on our door, we threw my son and he caught him and after that, I jumped out the window and my boyfriend jumped out."

Jordan was shaking and crying a lot, Alvarez said, but wasn't injured. Alvarez sat in a neighbor's truck waiting for an ambulance while Perez laid on the ground with back injuries, unable to move.

The three, along with seven other families, were left homeless after the fire destroyed the Shelby Place Apartments at 38th Place and Shelby Place in Hobart.

Firefighters were called just after 5:30 a.m. to the two-story, eight-unit building.

"When the guys got here, it was fully engulfed," Assistant Fire Chief Fabian Martinez said.

Martinez said four residents suffered injuries -- two from the jump and two from smoke inhalation.

Alvarez said she and Perez were hurt after they jumped. The 3-year-old wasn't injured. Alvarez was sent to St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart, and she said Perez was sent to Porter hospital in Portage.

Martinez said all four residents were released by Tuesday afternoon, though Alvarez returned Tuesday evening because she felt ill, her sister Lisa said.

Martinez said Hobart police assisted firefighters in connecting hoses to reach the nearest fire hydrant on Shelby Place before switching to aerial trucks to hit the fire from the top with water.

Hobart officials contacted the American Red Cross to assist displaced families. Alvarez was given three nights at a hotel from the organization. Perez's mother was gathering toiletries Tuesday afternoon because they lost what they had in the fire.

Hobart Fire Chief Brian Taylor confirmed resident claims that there were oxygen tanks in a first-floor apartment that exploded during the fire.

Martinez said the tanks didn't cause the fire but did explode after the blaze had started.  

Destiny Parris, 22, is a bartender in Hobart and had been home only for a little more than an hour when her neighbor started knocking on her door and her dog started barking.

"My neighbor said, 'There's a fire. Get out.'" a teary Parris said. "I'm freaking out. I can't see, but I got out, thank God."

Parris said she grabbed her purse on the way out the door, but lost everything else.

"I have one picture of my dad and it's gone," she said. "It's unreal. I'm speechless."

Parris and many of her neighbors in the building just southeast of U.S. 6 and Ind. 51 were in various states of dress when they escaped the fire. Neighbors on the mostly single-family home street provided them with socks, shoes, shirts and robes.

David Purdue, 42, stood outside watching his smoldering building. Purdue said he and his girlfriend were asleep when neighbors woke them and told them to get out.

"I barely got out," Purdue said. "I could feel the heat of the fire on my back."

Joseph Walsh, 25, was sleeping when he heard someone knocking on his door around 5:30 a.m.

"I looked out and saw a lot of smoke," he said.

Walsh said he was able to escape from his second-floor apartment through a window and climb down a ladder provided by a neighbor.

Most of the residents said they did not have renter's insurance.

Alvarez went back to the apartment with firefighters Tuesday afternoon after the fire was extinguished.

"We went into to try and get our documents, our IDs, but everything was gone. I have a couple things but they're all dirty and filled with water," she said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, Taylor said, with the assistance of the Indiana State Fire Marshal's office.

Hobart firefighters were assisted at the scene by Hobart police and firefighters from New Chicago, Portage and Lake Station.