Funerals for 2 Chicago firefighters killed in line of duty to be held this week

Chicago firefighter Jermaine Pelt and Lt. Jan Tchoryk died last week fighting separate fires.

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Firefighter Jermaine Pelt and Lt. Jan Tchoryk.

Firefighter Jermaine Pelt (left) and Lt. Jan Tchoryk.

Chicago Fire Department

Chicago fire officials have announced funeral arrangements for two Chicago firefighters who died last week in the line of duty.

The visitation for Lt. Jan Tchoryk will be Wednesday from 3 to 9 p.m. at Cumberland Chapels in suburban Norridge, Chicago fire officials said. Tchoryk’s funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at St. Joseph Ukrainian Church in Chicago.

Tchoryk died battling an extra-alarm blaze in a high-rise building on the morning of April 5 in the Gold Coast neighborhood. He was a 26-year veteran of the Chicago Fire Department.

A day earlier, firefighter Jermaine Pelt died responding to a house fire in the West Pullman neighborhood.

Pelt’s visitation will be held Thursday from 3 to 10 p.m. at Blake-Lamb Funeral Home in southwest suburban Oak Lawn. His funeral service will be 11 a.m. Friday at House of Hope in Chicago.

Pelt joined the Chicago Fire Department in 2005 and was based on the South Side his entire career, Chicago Fire Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt said.

“Right now, I have two funerals to prepare for, two grieving families and a huge department that is broken, including the command staff,” Nance-Holt told reporters after Tchoryk’s death.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot called the back-to-back tragedies “unprecedented.”

An autopsy found Pelt died of carbon monoxide toxicity from inhalation of smoke and soot, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. Tchoryk’s cause of death was determined to be hypertensive-arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, according to the medical examiner’s office.

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