By Sandra Guy and Jon Seidel
The Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO — As huge, black clouds of smoke billowed out of an Edgewater neighborhood apartment building, neighbors scrambled to help dozens of residents escape, and firefighters climbed about 12 ladders to pull people to safety.
Fourteen people were rescued from windows and 13 to 15 people were taken out of the burning building from a stairwell of the 40-unit, five-story building in the 6100 block of North Kenmore, fire officials said.
Fifteen people — eight residents, six firefighters and a police officer — were taken to hospitals, including residents who jumped out of windows as the initial 10:50 a.m. fire call escalated to a 3-11 alarm around 11:20 a.m. At least three were in serious condition Sunday.
The fire started on the third floor and was “in several locations” when firefighters arrived, said District 3 Fire Chief Timothy Sampey.
Firefighters credited neighbors for rushing to help, including those who went into the stairwells to help people out and two men for helping pull the fire hoses into the building.
Mark Blackburn, 25, who was visiting a friend on the first floor, said he smelled smoke and met in the hallway a neighboring family whom he helped get out.
“The mom and dad had a baby in a car seat and other children,” he said, noting that he pitched in because he would want someone to do the same for him. “I heard yelling out the window. I heard people scream. I immediately jumped out the window and helped handle the baby.”
Blackburn and fifth-floor resident Daniel Trajkovski, a 24-year-old truck driver, helped firefighters pull a fire hose into the building.
Said Trajkovski: “I helped people down the stairs. It was just a reaction - to help people.”
Trajkovski also moved cars so firefighters could get their trucks up to the building on the narrow street where cars were parked on both sides.
Neighbor Amir Osmanobic and Areal Delacruz said they helped lift four or five children out of the building through a window after they saw the smoke and heard cries for help.
“They were scared to death,” Delacruz said.
One father with four children passed his newborn out the window and hurt his leg jumping from the third floor, neighbors said.
A woman who asked not to be identified said she saw three people who “had no skin” after being burned being taken away by ambulance.
Katherine Anderson, a homemaker who takes care of her mother, Lillian, who had lived in the building for five months, were rescued by firefighters on an aerial ladder.
“I could have died in there,” Katherine, 42, said crediting a firefighter. “I closed the door and put towels on my mom’s face. My mother collapsed, but I made it to the window and the firefighters brought us down.”
She said the elevator in the building hadn’t worked for months but that a smoke alarm in the hallway alerted her to the fire.
Alex Zamora, who had lived in a fourth-floor unit for three months, said he opened the door to see “lots of flames and smoke” and, alongside Carmine Vazquez, ran down the stairs carrying sons Alexander, 2, and Salomon, 1.
“I remembered from school that you’re supposed to crawl, but there was no time,” Zamora said. “I slipped twice going down the stairs, but I just got up and kept going.”
The fire was visible blocks away.
Fire Commissioner Jose A. Santiago called the fire “an extremely difficult situation,” in part because the street is narrow. After they arrived, he said firefighters quickly set up ladders to windows of the building to get people out — five in back, four in front and two aerial truck ladders.
“They saved a lot of lives by setting up ladders around the building,” Santiago said at a press conference on the scene.
Of those injured, two were in serious condition and three were in good condition at Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital; one was in serious condition and being transferred to a burn center, while two were treated and released at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston; and two were treated and released from Weiss Memorial Hospital, hospital officials said. No one at St. Joseph Hospital would give an update on the fire victims.
Contributing: Dan Rozek and James Scalzitti
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