Boy, 6, dies, mother, 2 firefighters hurt after apartment fire in Chicago's West Rogers Park
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 in the West Rogers Park neighborhood.
Crews responded to the two-alarm fire at a 12-unit apartment building at 2740-44 W. Granville Ave. around 11 a.m. The blond brick building is located on the northwest corner of Granville and Fairfield avenues, directly across the street from the DeWitt Clinton Elementary School campus.
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.
The boy who died was identified as Milan Campbell.
His mother, Simina Contras-Campbell, was taken to Swedish Hospital in critical condition. She remained in critical condition as of Sunday, Feb. 16.
A GoFundMe as of Sunday evening had raised nearly $72,000 for Simina Contras-Campbell, who has no family in the U.S.
One firefighter was also taken to Saint Francis Hospital and the other to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, 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.
