By Kara Spak and Lisa Donovan
The Chicago Sun-Times

SUMMIT, Ill. — Wherever Ebony Tiggs went, her three children went — tiny shadows of a mother who kept them close to keep them safe.

"She never went anywhere without those kids," said Shannon Williams, who lived across the street from Tiggs' Summit home.

But a house fire Tuesday night cruelly separated the family forever. Tiggs' three children — Jordan, Cory and Cameron Robinson — died of smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning in the fire at 7441 W. 63rd Pl. in the south suburb.

Tiggs was in good condition Wednesday at Adventist La Grange Memorial Hospital despite burns and a back injury suffered when she jumped to safety from her unit's second-floor window, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Summit Fire Chief Robert Wasko said the fire was likely caused by a candle that he said Tiggs told investigators she lit Tuesday night, though the investigation remains open.

Terry Hanna, Tiggs' neighbor, said he tried to rescue the children before firefighters arrived.

"There were too many flames going in the front," Hanna said. "I went around the back, and there was a thick cloud of smoke."

The heat was so intense that the lettering on the football jersey he was wearing started to melt, he said. Efforts to extinguish the fire with a garden hose also didn't work.

"They didn't have to die like that," he said.

A tribute of balloons, teddy bears, candles and streamers grew steadily outside the home Wednesday. Neighbors and friends stared at the charred house, many with tears rolling down their cheeks.

Family and neighbors gathered outside the home Wednesday night for a tear-filled prayer vigil. Before it got under way, Diana Tiggs — Ebony Tiggs' mother and the children's grandmother — said it was difficult to express the emptiness.

"They were my best friends in the whole wide world. I'm going to miss them, I'm going to miss them, I'm going to miss them," she said, her voice trailing off. The children's mother, she said, suffered burns and broken bones and was nursing a broken heart over her loss.

Jordan, 8, had just started third grade, said neighbor Lashon Armstrong, who baby-sat the three children Tuesday while Tiggs started a new job. Nicknamed Jo-Jo, she loved wearing her mother's high heels and acting like a little mother to her two brothers.

Cory, 3, often played with his treasured collections of toy cars and fire trucks, Armstrong said.

Cameron, 1, was recognized as much by his smile as his red hair. He had just learned to walk.

Two years ago, Tiggs and her children moved into the 35-unit housing facility, built in 1954. The property is managed by Cook County and slated for demolition.

Neighbors there pointed out the boarded-up unit next to Tiggs' home, saying that unit's occupant was moved out after an electrical fire a month ago.

The fire department responded to a call at that unit, but there was no record of an electrical fire, Wasko said. ComEd dealt with a problem on the unit's exterior, he said.

Pointing to low-hanging electrical wires, tall weeds and a dangling tree limb, several neighbors said they thought the property wasn't maintained well once it was slated to be demolished.

Lori Newson, executive director of the Cook County Housing Authority, said there were no outstanding code violations there.

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