By Brian Stanley
The Chicago Sun Times
 AP Photo/M. Spencer Green Firefighters disperse after battling the five-alarm fire that raged through a three-story hotel in Lockport, Ill., Tuesday. |
LOCKPORT, Ill. — Robert Triplett was asleep when the smoke detector in his Lockport hotel room activated.
“I saw flames under the [hallway] door and wondered how we were going to get out,” said Triplett, who broke out windows to reach across to another resident standing on the fire escape. “It was so smoky.”
Eventually, Triplett and his son were rescued from the blaze when a firetruck positioned a ladder to the third floor of the residential hotel.
At least one person, however, wasn’t as lucky as Triplett Tuesday morning. That unidentified person was killed after the fire raged through the building. Firefighters searched for more victims Tuesday.
The five-alarm fire started at about 4 a.m. The three-story building, on the northwest corner of State and 10th streets, contains the Towpath Inn and Dreams Bar & Grill.
The body was found in the front area of the third floor.
One resident was taken to Silver Cross Hospital earlier with minor injuries.
Lockport Township Fire Chief Robert Cronholm said the majority of the fire was on the third floor in the rear of the building.
While firefighters from almost every area department worked to put the blaze out, Cronholm said two of the 14 registered guests were unaccounted for, “though the accuracy of the registry is questionable.”
Triplett watched from across the street as flames came out of the building’s roof.
He lamented leaving his false teeth behind but was more concerned about another resident he’d seen earlier who appeared to be missing.
“I saw the firemen take her boyfriend out, but I didn’t see her come out,” he said.
A southeast wind also complicated efforts to extinguish the fire. Several downtown streets were blocked to accommodate the hoses.
Firefighters kept water on the building for nearly three hours before search crews went in.
“Originally there were problems with the water mains downtown,” Cronholm said.
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