3 hospitalized, including child, after apartment fire in Chicago's West Rogers Park - CBS Chicago
By , Marissa Sulek
/ CBS Chicago
Child killed, mother and two firefighters injured in West Rogers Park fire
A 6-year-old boy has died, and three other people, including his mother and two firefighters, were hospitalized after an apartment fire Friday morning on the in the West Rogers Park neighborhood.
Crews responded to the two-alarm fire at a 12-unit apartment building in the 2700 block of West Granville Avenue around 11 a.m.
Initial reports say the fire was believed to have started on the first floor and, according to fire officials, caused the back porches to collapse.
Sources the mother was taken to Swedish Hospital in critical condition. One firefighter was also taken to Saint Francis Hospital and the other to Illinois Masonic Hospital, both in good condition. The firefighters were injured when one of the building's interior stairwells collapsed.
Fire Department officials said the bitter cold also posed a challenge for firefighters.
While there were no issues with getting water on the flames, the cold temperatures froze the water on the ground, making for hazardous conditions.
Firefighters opened holes in the roof to ventilate the smoke, and raised ladders in case anyone needed to be rescued.
"We put all these ladders up to facilitate rescues in case we had to get people down the ladders. The stairwells were very heavily engulfed in flames, so we couldn't get people down the stairwell. But when I got here, there was nobody coming down the ladders," Chicago Fire Department District Chief Robert Jurewicz said.
A man who used to live in the building said he tried to rescue the 6-year-old boy who died. He went to the child's apartment after seeing smoke and flames coming into his own apartment, but when he tried to open the door, the doorknob was so hot that he burned his hand.
He and other tenants took shelter on a warming bus after the fire, as they waited to get back inside to find out what belongings they could salvage from the fire.
Fire Department officials said it took more than an hour to put out the flames. The cause of the fire was under investigation Friday afternoon.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Jeramie Bizzle is a web producer for CBS Chicago. Jeramie began working with CBS Chicago as an intern in 2017 and returned as a full-time Web Producer in 2021. He has previously written for the Austin Weekly Newspaper, OakPark.com and Sportskeeda.
