Mother, son killed in house fire in suburban Chicago, officials say
CICERO, Ill. (CBS) — A mother and her son died in a house fire in suburban Cicero on Wednesday morning.
The fire broke out around 5 a.m. at a home in the 5000 block of West 29th Street.
Officials said the mother and son were found dead on the second floor of the home. The victims were identified as Aura Armas and her 16-year-old son, Luis Armas Jr.
The victims were among five people who lived at the home.
The husband and 14-year-old son were able to escape the home, and fire crews rescued one woman, the husband's mother, from a side window. Three family dogs also made it out.
Melanie Espino went to school with Luis and said, "He had so much life and especially since he was a good person. He could have seen so much more of the world, but he didn't, instead, unfortunately."
Espino said Luis was kind, a good listener and "would help me out with school work when I had questions. He would help me in general."
His classmates and neighbors said Luis had been excited to have his first cell phone, a gift from his dad he never got to use.
"He was supposed to give it to him or he gave it to him yesterday, and he was really excited to take it to school, but unfortunatley, that couldn't happen," said neighbor Emely Lopez.
A neighbor and friend of the family told CBS News Chicago he smelled the smoke and then heard screaming.
"I heard someone screaming 'Help me, help me,'" Jayden Alfaro said. "I see the whole back of the house on fire. I was freaking out because those were my friends up there, I didn't know what to do."
At one point, the fire spread to a second vacant house.
The survivors will stay with another family member in Berwyn.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
