By Alexandra Chachkevitch and Quinn Ford
The Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — Two women were found dead after a fire broke out in the basement of a two-flat building in the Belmont Gardens neighborhood Thursday night, authorities said.
The fire started about 11:10 p.m. in the 4500 block of the West Parker Avenue on the Northwest Side, according to Chicago police and fire officials.
First responders found the two women, who appear to be in their 20s, in the building’s garden apartment, according to Chicago Fire Department officials. Fire personnel responded to the scene within three minutes, officials said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, police said. The Police Department’s bomb and arson unit was on the scene Friday, and a canine unit indicated areas where accelerants could be present, sources said.
Joel Gonzalez, 33, who lives in the two-bedroom apartment on the second floor of the building, said he was taking a shower when the fire alarm went off.
Gonzalez said his mother and sister, who live in the apartment with him, went through a hallway filled with black smoke in order to get outside.
“It’s traumatizing,” said Gonzalez, standing outside of the building early Friday as firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze. “In one instant, you can lose everything.”
Gonzalez, who said he has lived in the building for more than three years, said tenants in the apartment on the first floor were on vacation. Three women and a man lived in the apartment in the basement, but Gonzalez said he didn’t know much about them.
“I was hoping it wasn’t as bad as it was,” Gonzalez said. “It was scary.”
Authorities said no smoke detectors were found in the garden apartment. Fire officials plan to be on the scene at 10 a.m. Friday to distribute smoke detectors to neighbors on the block, according to a Fire Department spokesman.
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