A young girl died and her father was injured during an accidental fire Tuesday morning in the Englewood neighborhood, officials said.
Firefighters were called to a top-floor apartment at 511 W. Marquette Road about 7:15 a.m. where they found the girl, 5, deceased, according to Chicago fire and police officials.
A family of five lives there and fire officials on the scene told reporters the fire may have been caused by a child playing with a lighter.
The 5-year-old was found in a bunk bed moments after paramedics from an ambulance returning to a nearby firehouse from an unrelated run noticed fire and smoke surging from the second-floor window, department spokesman Larry Langford said.
Crews from Engine 54 and Truck 20 arrived “seconds later” and burst into the building. “Family on the scene told them where the child was,” Langford said. The bed was “pretty much consumed” with fire, he said.
Firefighters simultaneously searched the building and extinguished the fire, which also left a man with “minor burns,” Langford said. The man was taken to University of Chicago Medical Center.
The child’s father, mother and two siblings live in the apartment, a fire official and the building’s owner, Elliott Williams, told reporters on the scene.
“I saw an ambulance and I had an ominous feeling,” Williams said. He added, “I never want anybody to get hurt, that’s the big thing. I’m devastated to know that the baby girl was in there.”
The cause of the fire, which was contained to one apartment, was determined to be careless use of smoking materials, the fire department said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
A working smoke detector was in the home, but the family didn’t hear it go off, officials said.
About five people were displaced from the multiunit apartment building, police said. Other tenants were evacuated, but it wasn’t clear if they also were displaced.
About 9:30 a.m., windows in the top-floor unit were shattered, and some of the exterior walls were scorched black as crews worked inside.
Police cars blocked off the street as some neighbors observed fire officials working the scene.
Contributing: Kade Heather
