Firefighter dies nearly a month after Rogers Park hit-and-run

A 43-year-old Chicago firefighter died Tuesday, nearly a month after he was struck by a minivan in a hit-and-run crash in the North Side Rogers Park neighborhood.

On June 12, Lorenzo Douglas was outside of his parked vehicle about 7:30 p.m. when a minivan going north in the 6500 block of North Ashland moved into the southbound lanes and hit him, his vehicle and two other parked vehicles, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. The driver then sped off.

Douglas was taken to Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston in critical condition, police said.

Douglas was a firefighter at Engine 103, a single-engine fire station near Madison and Laflin on the Near West Side, known for its firehouse dog Freckles, Fire Media Affairs Director Larry Langford said. Douglas lived in the same block where he was hit.

Langford said Douglas began to improve after the accident and was rehabilitating at Holy Family Medical Center in Des Plaines.

“We thought he was on his way back,” Langford said.

But Douglas suffered from “some kind of relapse” at the medical center, Langford said. He was pronounced dead there at 11:05 a.m. Tuesday, according to the medical examiner’s office.

An autopsy Wednesday found Douglas died from the injuries suffered when he was struck, and his death was ruled an accident, according to the medical examiner’s office.

“He was very well liked,” Langford said. “It’s a small station and a tight-knit group.”