6-year-old boy dead, woman critical after fire tears through West Ridge apartment building: 'It was horrible'

With their apartment building on fire, three West Ridge residents tried desperately Friday morning to get into one of the burning units, where a 6-year-old boy was trapped.

They got through the door, but could make it no further, said Mr. Ahmed, one of the neighbors.

“It was very, very smokey and dark inside. We couldn’t go in,” said Ahmed, 29, who didn’t want his first name used.

“We couldn’t save the kid,” he said. ”It was a very bad situation.”

The extra-alarm fire erupted about 11:15 a.m. in an apartment building in the 2700 block of West Granville Avenue.

In addition to the boy who died, another resident, a woman, was critically hurt. The Cook County medical examiner’s office confirmed the boy’s death, but has not released his name or said if the woman is a relative.

Officials said an adult was listed in critical condition at Swedish Covenant Hospital, though did not reveal the gender.

Two firefighters also were injured when an indoor stairwell gave out, according to a district fire chief who briefed reporters at the scene. One injured firefighter was taken in good condition to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston as a precaution.

“The stairwells were very heavily engulfed in flames,” the chief said, adding that some rear porches on the building also collapsed.

The fire likely started on the first floor of the 12-unit building, but its initial cause and origin still are being investigated, the chief said.

It’s unclear if the building was properly equipped with smoke detectors.

Around 100 firefighters responded to the blaze and it took 45 minutes to an hour to extinguish the flames.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Ahmed, who took shelter at a nearby Aldi with his 5-year-old son, lives in the garden unit and was on the phone talking to relatives who live out of state when he noticed a bad smell.

Ahmed checked the wires of appliances and then heard his neighbors “running” downstairs and screaming.

“As soon as I started smelling the smoke I took my kid out,” said Ahmed, whose son was home sick from school and was “in shock. ... He was crying.”

He and two neighbors sprang into action when they realized the woman who lives in the apartment was badly hurt and had gotten out but that the boy was still trapped inside.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

At least five ambulances were sent to the scene and ComEd crews also pitched in to deenergize the area at the request of the fire department so crews could safely operate.

At about 12:30 p.m., fire trucks blocked the intersection of Fairfield and Granville avenues as several firefighters remained on the scene. Many displaced residents looked for somewhere warm to wait while police officers directed traffic.

Red and yellow tape cordoned off the intersection and the south side of the building was scorched and windows were burned out.

Several passersby looked on curiously as crews worked and by 1 p.m., firefighters were rolling up hoses and loading gear back into the trucks.

Zain Abedin lives across the street and was in a meeting when he got a text from his neighbor about the fire at around 11:10 a.m.

Abedin looked outside and saw smoke pouring from the third floor, then suddenly “balls of flames” were racing up the building.

“It just kept raging,” he said. “Flames kept climbing. I think they did everything they could. It’s absolutely tragic.”

Abedin and his two daughters, ages 1 and 4, watched the firefighters work.

“I was scared, absolutely scared,” he said. “I didn’t know how to react so I can’t imagine how someone inside would react.”

Jose Sanchez lives in the building and was home when he smelled smoke and a woman screaming. Shortly after that, he saw her while leaving the building — she was “screaming, bloody, burned,” Sanchez said.

The woman, who he didn’t know personally, said her 6-year-old was upstairs.

“The whole building was fire, smoke, heat from the windows — they shattered,” Sanchez said.

A warming bus was sent to the scene, and firefighters offered hot chocolate to the displaced residents.

His kids were in school across the street and Sanchez wondered where they would go when they get out at 3:30 p.m.

Another resident, Ricky Gonzalez, was standing outside wearing only pajamas.

“I can’t even get in my car. The keys are upstairs,” he said. “I’m stuck outside. I wasn’t cold but I’m starting to feel it now.”

Gonzalez also saw the woman who was badly burned.

“She was yelling about her 6-year-old inside,” he said. “It was horrible. It was horrible.”

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times