By Frank Main and Janet Rausa Fuller
Chicago Sun Times
Copyright 2006 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Amado Ramirez has told investigators he left home to attend a band practice before a weekend blaze ripped through his Rogers Park apartment, killing five of his children and a girl being baby-sat at the home, officials said Monday.
Ramirez told investigators that some of his 10 children were with him at the practice about four blocks away at Clark and Rogers — and the children walked home alone about 10:30 p.m. Saturday to their apartment building at 7706 N. Marshfield.
His wife, Augusta Ramirez, told investigators through a Spanish interpreter that she awoke to smoke about 12:15 a.m. Sunday. She said she screamed a warning to her sleeping children before grabbing her infant daughter and escaping through a back door, according to authorities.
Amado Ramirez said he showed up at the scene after firefighters arrived at 12:22 a.m., authorities said.
His 18-year-old daughter, Yadira Ramirez, was staying with her godmother in Lake County when police called about the tragedy. The godmother, Martina Rocha of Round Lake Beach, woke up Yadira and they drove to Chicago.
“Then the nightmare started,” Rocha said.
‘SHE LOST FIVE’
Yadira visited the apartment building Monday, walking up to police tape and sobbing as she rested her head against a wrought iron gate.
“She feels really bad,” Yadira Ramirez said of her mother. “She didn’t lose only one, she lost five and I think she needs time for herself.”
Yadira said her 12-year-old brother, Eric, played piano, and sometimes her father and her siblings would watch him practice with a band. Eric died in the blaze along with siblings Kevin, 3; Suzette, 10; Idaly, 6; and Vanessa, 14. Another victim, 3-year-old Escarlet Ramos, was being baby-sat.
Fire Cmdr. Will Knight said investigators suspect a candle started the blaze but have not officially determined the cause. Electricity was shut off to the apartment since May because of the family’s mounting utility bills.
Investigators said they didn’t find evidence of a smoke detector in the unit. Other apartments in the building had functioning, hard-wired smoke detectors, investigators found. A working smoke detector was in the unit below the Ramirez’s third-floor apartment, but the fire didn’t set it off, officials said.
‘Nothing looks criminal’
Ald. Joe Moore (49th) said investigators found only a brace where a smoke detector should have been mounted in the Ramirez’s apartment. “I don’t know what happened to it and we may never know,” he said.
The Fire Department reminded the public that free smoke detectors are available at firehouses. In every fatal residential fire in Chicago this year, the home has lacked a working smoke detector, officials said.
Amado Ramirez told investigators that he repeatedly warned his children about the danger of candles.
The fire seems to have started close to the floor in a hallway, authorities said. Investigators found Amado Ramirez’s lighter near the origin of the blaze.
Authorities said they believe the fire was accidental but did not know exactly how it started yet.
“Nothing looks criminal,” one official said.
At least one witness offered an account that differed from what Amado Ramirez provided investigators.
Markus Thomas, 18, said he lives in the building and was standing in an alley talking to his mother on a cell phone before the fire Sunday when he saw Amado Ramirez park his truck and walk up to the landing of his apartment.
Amado Ramirez was speaking Spanish loudly, seemingly trying to get into the apartment, Thomas told the Sun-Times. He said he heard a woman’s voice yelling back.
Ramirez walked back down the stairs, hopped into a truck and left, Thomas said. Thomas has been interviewed by investigators. He also told officials he heard arguing from the building before the fire.
The fire was the worst of its kind in Chicago in 42 years. A total of six or more children have not died in a residential blaze in Chicago since 1964, when seven children and an adult perished at 4136 W. Gladys.
Augusta Ramirez and her 3-month-old daughter were released from Thorek Memorial Hospital after being treated for smoke inhalation. Two other children were at other hospitals, but authorities would not reveal their conditions Monday.
Augusta Ramirez and her husband could not be reached for comment.
Bernice Moore said three of the kids who died attended Gale Elementary with her children.
“They were happy, playful, lovely kids,” she said. “They would have been here today.”