Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — Four people, including a Chicago firefighter, were taken to hospitals in critical condition after a Belmont Craigin house fire early Thursday. One of the victims later died, according to the Chicago Fire Department.
Fire officials did not immediately provide information about the person who died, including whether it was a man or woman and if they were a resident of the building that burned. But in a post on social media, the agency made clear the person who died was not the firefighter, who recently celebrated his one-year anniversary with the department.
Around 2:10 a.m. a resident on the third floor of a building in the 3100 block of North Marmora Avenue reported a fire in the basement of the residential building, according to multiple Chicago Fire Department sources. Firefighters responded and within minutes the blaze was considered a working fire. Fire Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt said those who responded were initially unaware there had been people inside, but it was quickly upgraded to an extra-alarm call when a “mayday” call went out over the radio.
“At about 2:12 (a.m.) it was declared a working fire. After that, at 2:24 (it was upgraded to) a still and box, an elevated alarm, because of a mayday, firefighter down,” Nance-Holt said during a news conference outside one of four hospitals those who were critically injured were being treated at.
“Originally it was only contents at the fire but after the mayday, that’s when we elevated the alarm,” she said.
Deputy Chief Juan Hernandez said the fire was in the basement of a brick residential building on Marmora with three people from the building who were critically injured, as well as the responding firefighter. It was not immediately clear how the firefighter was injured or whether the three other victims were all residents of the building.
They were taken to “surrounding area hospitals,” he said. Those included West Suburban Hospital and Community First Hospital, where the firefighter was taken before he was transferred to Loyola in Maywood.
Nance-Holt did not say whether there were working smoke detectors in the residence but stressed the importance of them, particularly during the cold winter months.
“We ask that everyone pray for all these people that were injured this morning at this fire. … This is heartbreaking as we stand here this morning for this — right before the holidays — and families fighting, hoping and praying their loved ones will make it.”
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