By Elena Ferrarin
Chicago Daily Herald
MOUNT PROSPECT, Ill. — An elderly woman died early Saturday morning after a fire in the first-floor apartment of a three-story building in Mount Prospect, officials said.
While on the scene of another fire, Mount Prospect firefighters received a call at 5:40 a.m. Saturday of smoke in a building at The Colony Apartments on the 2300 block of South Cannon Drive, officials said.
Firefighters got into the first-floor unit through the front door and broke a window to ventilate as they put out the fire. The victim was found in the apartment just inside the front door, Fire Chief John Malcolm said.
The victim was pronounced dead at the scene; her name is not being released pending notification of all relatives, Malcolm said. The victim’s son and daughter were at the scene Saturday morning but declined to comment. Neighbor Debalina Datta said she lives in the apartment just above the victim’s and called 911 after her mother woke her and her father to alert them that their unit was full of smoke.
“She woke up choking; there was smoke everywhere,” said Datta, adding her smoke detector didn’t go off. “We checked all our electric things, but nothing was on fire. Then I called 911.”
Datta said she didn’t know the victim. Her parents are visiting from India while her husband is away for a couple of weeks, she said.
Residents of three of the building’s 12 apartments were temporarily displaced as investigators examined the scene, Malcolm said. All were expected to be allowed back into their units by noon Saturday, he said. The victim’s apartment was uninhabitable as a result of the fire, he added.
The cause is undetermined at this point, the chief said. Investigation of the fire has been turned over to the Mount Prospect Police Department and the Office of the State Fire Marshal. Building damage is estimated at $50,000. Earlier, firefighters were called to a house fire at 108 N. School St. Firefighters received a report at approximately 4:30 a.m. Saturday of smoke in the house. Firefighters found a fire in the basement of a one-story single-family residence.
A lone resident had evacuated the building and the fire was extinguished within 15 minutes, according to fire department officials. A preliminary investigation cites a faulty fireplace as the possible cause of the fire, officials said. Damage is estimated at $100,000.
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