A young girl died and her father was injured during an accidental fire Tuesday morning in Englewood, 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, 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 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 quickly extinguished the fire, which also left the father with “minor burns,” officials said. He was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center.
The father, mother and two siblings — an infant and a 6-year-old — live in the apartment, Deputy Fire Commissioner Marc Ferman 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.
“We just want to reinforce and monitor children with playing with matches,’’ Ferman said. “We always want to remind our kids not to play with matches — it’s always a dangerous situation.”
A working smoke detector was in the home, but the family didn’t hear it go off.
“It’s rough on the family of course and even the guys that responded ... you know just looking in their eyes, coming out, knowing that they couldn’t get there in time,” said an emotional Ferman.
“A lot of guys have children at home ... thinking about just spending Christmas with your family and then show up to work this morning and … knowing that this family has just lost a child is just kind of rough,” Ferman said.
The family from the affected apartment was displaced from the multi-unit building, police said. Other tenants were evacuated, but it wasn’t clear if they also were displaced.
Windows in the top-floor unit were shattered, and some of the exterior walls were scorched black as crews worked inside.
Contributing: Kade Heather
