3 killed, several injured in early-morning apartment fire on Far North Side

CHICAGO — Several people were injured and three others were killed after a fire erupted at a Far North Side apartment building early Thursday morning.

According to Chicago police, the blaze erupted just before 2 a.m. at a three-story apartment complex with garden units in the 7000 block of North Rockwell Street, in West Ridge.

When crews first arrived on the scene, they found the building’s back porches engulfed in flames.

The flames from the porches eventually shattered windows leading to the building’s stairwells, which subsequently caught fire, leaving residents living above the first floor with no way to escape except through the windows.

“I’m still in shock because we basically…everything was damaged and we lost everything, and I don’t know what to say. I’m just like, what can I do now? Like, I don’t know,” Nuti Ho, who escaped the burning building, said.

Trapped by the flames, officials said at least two people, possibly three, jumped from their windows before the arrival of fire crews.

“Everyone who actually did jump is still alive in the hospitals, spread out to different hospitals; they are all in critical condition,” CFD Assistant Deputy Fire Commissioner Jim McDonough said.

Crews were eventually able to use their ladders to pull six residents from the building’s second and third floors.

However, since crews had to utilize the ladders for rescues, they were unable to focus their efforts on the roof of the building, which later collapsed.

Several residents remain unaccounted for as of 5:45 a.m., but crews are uncertain about how many reside in the building and believe that some who fled may have left the scene.

Simultaneously, search efforts were significantly hampered due to the collapsed roof and officials said additional crews would be needed to help tear the building down.

“It won’t be safe for our firefighters to get in there and finalize our searches,” McDonough said. “I don’t think we’ll ever be able to do a final search until we get a crew out here to help us take that building apart.”

Resident Guadalupe Hernandez said her family went from resting peacefully to realizing their lives were danger.

We were sleeping when the alarms went off. I woke up my husband and I told him the building is burning; fire, fire,” Hernandez said.

In total, officials said three people, identified as males, were killed in the blaze, though their identities remain unclear.

Authorities have not yet said what may have sparked the blaze and an investigation is underway, but they did say they can’t rule out that it started from someone smoking.

The fire drew a massive response, with around 100 firefighters on the scene.

SkyCam 9 was over the scene around 6:10 a.m. when several trucks with ladders extended could be seen from overhead.

Because of the heavy response, crews closed Rockwell Street between Lunt Avenue and Greenleaf Avenue. It is unclear how long the closures will last.

Officials offered an update on the incident at around 5:45 a.m. Thursday. The full new conference can be viewed in the video player below.