Four Killed as Blaze Sweeps Chicago Apartment House

Wind-whipped flames ripped through a 10-story apartment house before dawn Thursday, killing four people, including a woman who tried to jump to safety as intense heat and thick, black smoke spread panic among occupants.

People watching in the darkness screamed and pleaded with occupants not to jump, but at least four plunged from upper floors.

At least 40 people were injured. Fire Commissioner Ray Orozco said the blaze started in the apartment of a heavy smoker who stored a rolled-up mattress, film and two tires in a walk-in closet.

Winds of 40 mph gusting through broken windows fanned the flames white-hot, turning apartments into 1,500-degree caldrons, Orozco said. The heat was so intense it buckled the building’s steel beams.

“There was a tremendous amount of heat,” Orozco said. “You could compare this to a blowtorch.”

Firefighter Bill Heenan, standing on a ladder five stories up, reached out and caught a falling 8-year-old girl with his left arm, then carried the terrified child to safety. She may have been thrown from a window to save her from the fire.

“I stuck my arm out and somehow snagged her,” Heenan said. “I told her, ‘Hang onto me, I’ll hang onto you. We’re not going to go anywhere.’ She was crying but she did what I told her to do and I got her down.”

The federally subsidized, 145-unit building had a history of building code violations, including missing smoke detectors. Its fire alarm system had been broken for at least four years, residents said, and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development had cited health and safety violations as far back as September 1994.

HUD had scheduled inspections on Nov. 13 and Dec. 18 to follow up on earlier orders for repairs, but both were canceled because of the federal government shutdown.

The building’s manager is East Lake Management & Development Corp. of Chicago, whose chairman, Elzie Higgonbottom, is a prominent contributor to Chicago politicians. When a reporter called Thursday afternoon, a woman who answered the company’s phone hung up.

Among those who jumped, one 46-year-old woman leaped to her death and an 18-year-old broke her ankle and pelvis, according to a Northwestern Memorial Hospital spokeswoman. Witnesses said one man who jumped simply got up and walked away.

Two of those killed in the flames were found on the fifth floor and a third on the sixth floor, Deputy Fire Chief Bill Malone said.

At least 47 building occupants and firefighters were treated at seven hospitals for injuries ranging from broken bones to smoke inhalation.

More than 120 firefighters fought for 90 minutes to get the blaze under control. They carried about 60 occupants down about a dozen ladders.