Chicago Area Local News

OAK FOREST, Ill. (CBS) ― Two men are in police custody after a raging apartment blaze that appears to have been intentionally set left three people -- two adults and one child -- dead in Oak Forest over the weekend.

The extra-alarm fire started at 10:45 p.m. Saturday at the Le Claire Station Apartments in Oak Forest and by the time it was struck out at 2 a.m. Sunday, the building was completely destroyed. 

Oak Forest police tell us charges could be filed Sunday evening against the two local residents, in their 40s, who are suspected of setting a fire and using chemicals to help it spread.

Police believe the fire that destroyed a 36-unit Oak Forest Apartment building late Saturday night was deliberately set. 

"The volume of fire that we had and the amount of damage" prompted the arson investigation, Oak Forest Fire Chief Jim Berger told the Chicago Tribune. "There had to be something to get that fire going that fast and spread so quickly."

Two local men are in custody after witnesses reported seeing them on the property. For three hours, the fire tore through the apartments – displacing 70 people and killing two adults and a small child who lived on the second floor. One survivor says the victims include a couple and their three-year-old. 

The three were found dead within 10 feet of each other in apartment 209 of the Le Claire complex, said Oak Forest Deputy Police Chief David DeMarco. 

The victims have not been identified as of 9 p.m. The bodies will require dental records to identify them, the Cook County Medical Examiner's office said. Autopsies are scheduled for Monday. 

"It appears to be pretty much a total loss at this time," Berger said. "The roof is totally gone. The fire, of course, is under investigation. We don't have an exact cause at this time."

Witnesses said several residents were rescued by police officers and firefighters from the second floor balconies. 

Witness Frank Ayed said, "We were driving by and there were big flames and it was starting to cross the apartments and everybody started panicking and running out of their apartments."

A witness on the scene said he saw a man pouring gasoline around the complex, and the fire alarms went off shortly thereafter.  

"I heard the alarm and at first I thought it was a kid pulling the alarm because they do that from time to time. When I opened the door I saw smoke coming down the hallway," said resident Katherine Jordan. "I told my son to quickly get dress and I grabbed my bag with my important papers and put it in my car. The fire started on the second floor, but as you can see, it spread pretty quickly."

Abe Ade said, "It's like a nightmare. I mean, you're dealing with a situation where you're dispossessed of your residence … I've lost everything. It's true it's not true, you know. Not until this morning when people started to wake up then the news… it is real; it's like nightmare."

Ade is one survivor who was taken to a Red Cross emergency shelter at the Oak Forest Community Center. Twenty people will again spend the night in the gymnasium, just as they did Saturday night.

"We're also providing food, medicines, things they might have lost in the disaster," said Red Cross spokesperson Mike Mitchell.

Some say they have nowhere else to go.

"We're kind of taking it day by day trying to figure out what to do," said fire survivor Deidre Wade.

Others are relieved just to be alive.

One survivor of the blaze has only one leg; but his neighbors made sure he got out safely.

And Maya Patel jumped from her balcony. She says the apartment was filled with gifts she purchased to take to relatives in India, but all of it burned.

"I lost everything—clothes, money, jewelry," she said.

Now her family will have to rely on their relatives to get what they need.

The apartment management tells CBS 2 they are now working on finding alternative housing for some of the residents. 

CBS 2's Rafael Romo and Katie McCall contributed to this report.

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