3 people, including 2 firefighters, injured in apartment building fire on Chicago's South Side
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Two firefighters and a third person were injured in a fire in the South Shore neighborhood Monday evening.
The fire broke out on the second floor of a three-story, multi-unit apartment building in the 1400 block of East 69th Place, at the intersection with Dante Avenue.
Assistant Deputy Fire Commissioner Donald Walker said a still-and-box alarm was called for additional equipment and manpower due to the number of calls the Fire Department received.
A staircase collapsed while firefighters were battling the blaze—resulting in the Fire Department losing some communication with a few of its members. A mayday was called for missing firefighters, but everyone was ultimately accounted for, Walker said.
A woman was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center from the scene in good condition, while two firefighters were also transported to the same hospital with minor injuries.
The firefighters' injuries were not related to the mayday, Walker said.
A photo supplied by the Fire Department showed smoke and fire damage in center of the building, and in a unit on the east side of the front of the building. The windows were broken out in all the units in the front on the building's east side.
Walker said two people jumped out the second-floor window to escape the fire before firefighters came. They were not injured.
The fire was under control by around 6:45 p.m.
Karen Woodard lives next door to the building that caught fire.
"I was smelling the smoke sitting in my easy chair, and I was smelling the smoke, and I came down and just flame, and blazed up, and a lot of heavy, heavy smoke," she said.
Woodard added that some residents of the building are prone to "clowning"—hanging out of open windows and throwing items out.
The cause and origin of the fire remained under investigation late Monday, Walker said. The building was left uninhabitable by the fire, but it was not immediately known how many people were displaced.