1 Dead, 9 Hurt In Extra-Alarm Fire In Lakeview
CHICAGO (STMW) -- A 32-year-old woman was killed and nine others, including two firefighters, injured early Sunday in a fire at a high-rise apartment building in the Lakeview neighborhood.
A still and box alarm fire with an EMS Plan 1 was called at 2:04 a.m. for a fire at 3130 N. Lake Shore Drive, Fire Media Affairs spokesman Joe Roccasalva said.
The fire was located on the 12th floor of the 21-story building that brought 150 firefighters to the scene, he said. It was raised to a 2-11 alarm and later an EMS Plan 2 about 3:30 a.m. An EMS Plan 1, sends at least five ambulances to the scene. An EMS Plan 2 sends an additional five ambulances to the scene.
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Ten people were injured, Roccasalva said. A 32-year-old woman, who was found in an open elevator stopped in the 12th floor, was critically injured and taken to Saint Joseph Hospital where she died. One other person was critically injured and taken to Saint Joseph Hospital. Two firefighters were also injured, he said. One suffered exhaustion and was in serious condition. The second firefighter suffered minor injuries to his arm.
Roccasalva said so many people were affected because the door of the apartment where the fire originated was open, allowing smoke to billow out into the hallways. The woman who died, identified by the Cook County Medical Examiner's office as Shantel McCoy, lived in another apartment on the 12th floor.
McCoy's mother, JoAnn, says her daughter moved to Chicago from Philadelphia last March to start a new life. She worked for Wirtz Beverages.
Joann McCoy has a lot of questions for investigators, including why she was able to get into an elevator with a fire in the building.
"I want to know, you know, shouldn't the elevators have had a shut-down for her not to be able to get on there? I mean, it's a fire," she told CBS 2's Dana Kozlov in a telephone interview.
An autopsy later Sunday found McCoy died of carbon monoxide intoxication and inhalation of smoke and soot from an apartment fire and her death was ruled an accident, the medical examiner's office said.
Six other people were taken in serious condition to Saint Joseph Hospital, Weiss Memorial Hospital and Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.
The fire was extinguished and the EMS Plan 2 was struck out at 4 a.m.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2012. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
