Chicago Area Local News

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Police are investigating a deadly fire on the southeast side that claimed the lives of three young children. One relative believes the fire may have been deliberately set. CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot reports that Jackie Gordon, great aunt of the victims, wants police to look at a person who had a dispute with the children's father.

"They was lovable. They was sweet, kind," Gordon said. "They had the most beautiful smiles you ever wanted to see."

Gordon is the great aunt of 4-year-old Sherrell, 2-year-old Tyrell and 7-month old Jimmy Gates. A memorial was created by people in the community, in honor of the two brothers and sister. All three children died in a fire Wednesday morning in their southeast side home.

A still-and-box alarm was called about 10:40 a.m. at a three-story home at 8338 S. Buffalo Ave., according to Fire Media Affairs Asst. Director Eve Rodriguez.

Three children were dead on the scene, she said. A 4-year-old boy was rescued by firefighters and taken to the University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital.

Friends and family are trying to come to terms with the children's deaths.

Relatives were in the building with them when word came that their home was going up in flames.

"She came and she was beating on the door and I woke up, you know when you wake up out of a sleep, and she just kept banging. She was like, 'The apartment's on fire! The whole building's on fire!'" Sharday Harper, the children's cousin, said.

She escaped danger, as did a 4-year-old rescued from the second floor. The three little ones on the third floor were trapped in a front bedroom.

"I couldn't get to them," Harper said. "I heard 'em screaming, but I couldn't get to them."

"It was hot," neighbor Travon Barbee said. "It was like the devil was right next door."

"We tried to go up there, but it was too much smoke and too much flames, that's why we couldn't get in," neighbor Marland Maclin said.

The person who called 911 told the operator about the children, so crews knew they had to search and try to rescue.

"The first truck company made several attempts to find the children with thermal imaging cameras and their normal firefighting equipment that they use," said Battalion Chief Rosalind Jones of the Chicago Fire Department.

The fire began on the third floor of the home and spread to attic and roof of the building just to the north at 8336 S. Buffalo, Rodriguez said. The fire was extinguished about 11:25 a.m.

Gordon believes that foul play was involved.

"It just hurts to see somebody wanted to see these babies dead, just because of hatred, just because he didn't like their father," Gordon said. "I don't know how true that is, but somebody said they seen him coming out five minutes before the blaze took up. He's just that kind of evil person. He can be evil."

Police say they are conducting a preliminary criminal investigation into the fire. The move comes after fire investigators said they ruled out space heater use, candles and smoking materials.

Meantime, the children's mother is being questioned by police. A spokesperson says this is all routine.

"She loves her kids, she's a lovin' mom, she love her kids," Gordon said. "She would never in her life, she would have been in that fire with them, if she had not been stopped from going back up them stairs."

Investigators say there were no working smoke detectors in the home. One child remains hospitalized Wednesday night at Comer Children's Hospital in Hyde Park.

Meantime, there has been an outpouring of support for the Gates family. The Healthy Southeast Chicago Coalition is collecting donations, clothing and furniture for them.

If you'd like to help, visit http://healthysoutheastchicago.org/default.html

CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman, Suzanne Le Mignot, the Associated Press and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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