One dead and eight others are hospitalized – including a firefighter – after a blaze tears through the 9 floors of a high-rise in Chicago
- The fire department was called to the southside building at 10.06am
- The blaze is believed to have begun in a 15th floor apartment where a deceased individual was found by firefighters
- According to the fire chief, the fire was put out by the early afternoon, despite the windy city’s famous winter weather pushing the fire up nine floors
A large fire that broke out Wednesday in Chicago has killed one person and injured at least eight others – including a firefighter – according to officials.
First responders were called to the scene at the Harper Square Cooperative apartments in Kenwood on Wednesday morning at about 10am Central Time.
The fire began on the 15th floor, where an individual was found dead inside their apartment, and quickly sprang up to the 24th floor, according to Fire Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt.
Firefighters were forced to quickly make their way up the building’s stairs with their equipment to battle the blaze after the building’s elevators quickly gave out.
Fire rages in a high-rise apartment building on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, U.S., January 25, 2023
Eight people were hospitalized in addition to the individual who died.
Sophia King, the alderman for the area, said the person who died was found in the apartment where officials believe the fire began. Authorities have not released further information about the person who died.
The injured firefighter, said Nance-Holt, suffered a bone injury before the fire was put out by around 12.30pm.
‘The fact that the wind was pushing; the fire went up vertically, and it leapt from floor to floor to floor all the way up to 24, where firefighters gained control of it. They did an outstanding job,’ said the commissioner, explaining how the fire had so quickly climbed nine floors.
The fire quickly rose from the 15th to the 24th floors after originating on the 15th floor in the apartment of an individual who is now deceased
Chicago firefighters evacuate a man out of the Harper Square cooperative residential building on Wednesday January 25, 2023
Nance-Holt said more than 300 fire and Emergency Medical Service workers responded to the blaze; the cause of which remains under investigation.
Some residents of the co-op in the city’s southside were told to shelter in place in their apartments as first responders worked to put out the blaze, while others fled.
The eight people who were hospitalized are all now listed as in stable condition. An additional 33 residents declined medical treatment at a hospital.
The building houses a large senior population, though it is not a senior-only building.
Throughout the morning hours, heavy flames could be seen bursting from floors 21 through 24 of the building.
The fire’s flames were pushed up quickly because of Chicago’s famously brutal winter winds
Chicago Firefighter Mose Demasi looks up at the Harper Square cooperative residential building after he and others fought a multi-floor fire at the high-rise in the Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago
The Harper Square cooperative residential building on a normal day (left) and this morning (right)
A Chicago firefighter evacuates a woman holding a suitcase out of the Harper Square cooperative residential building to a waiting ambulance in Kenwood, Chicago
Fire fighters work to contain a deadly apartment building blaze in the Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, U.S. January 25, 2023
A fire fighter stands as fire fighters work to contain a deadly apartment building blaze in the Kenwood
Barbara Joiner, a 69-year-old resident of the co-op, stood outside the building with other neighbors as snow continued to fall.
Joiner said she acts as a caretaker for another woman who lives in the portion of the building affected by the fire and was anxiously trying to reach her.
‘Oh, my God,’ she said, remembering her reaction to seeing the flames once she got outside. ‘These flames are still rising,’ she said, prior to the time they were put out.
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