Nov 21, 2008 11:13 am US/Central
South Side Fire Leaves Nearly 20 Homeless
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Eighteen people were displaced when a fire broke out in an apartment building on King Drive.
CBS
An extra-alarm fire on the city's South Side has left nearly 20 people homeless on an unseasonably frigid night.
As CBS 2's Joanie Lum reports, the Fire Department says a problem with a fireplace might be to blame.
Firefighters arrived at the three-story apartment building at 4329 S. King Dr. around 10:45 p.m. Thursday.
Upon arrival, firefighters found heavy smoke but were unable to find the source of the fire. Firefighters used a thermal imaging device to determine the blaze was inside the apartment walls and flames were traveling up to the roof, Fire Department spokesman Richard Rosado said.
The fire was raised to a 2-11 alarm, and the Fire Department also sent five ambulances to the scene.
"I was actually asleep, and my sister woke me up, and I thought they were joking like there was a fire, and I actually went to sleep," said building resident Tylerlouise James, "and when I woke up, my room was full of smoke, and we just had to run out with whatever we could get."
The temperatures overnight were hovering in the upper teens, but James said that concern was secondary.
"I don't know. How do you feel when you see your house burning down?" James said. "I'm not really thinking about how cold I am."
A woman suffered minor smoke inhalation and was taken to Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in good condition, Rosado said.
That woman's granddaughter, Levilyn Chriss, said several people in her family had to be evacuated.
"I was in there feeding my grandmother and smelled the smoke, went to the windows. We saw the Fire Department, front and back just start evacuating; getting everybody out – my kids, my grandbaby, my grandmother; got her over to Mercy Hospital," Chriss said.
American Red Cross spokeswoman Martha Carlos said the agency assisted 19 people -- 10 adults and 9 children. Of those, 17 received shelter and there were three requests for infant supplies.
A warming bus kept 16 displaced adults and two children warm after the fire.
The city's Department of Human Services also assisted.
Police were sent to the scene because all the windows were broken out of the building, but the fire is not considered suspicious.
CBS 2's Joanie Lum and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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