WVON veteran Lucky Cordell, daughter critically hurt in South Shore fire

Lucky Cordell, the former general manager for WVON 1690, and his 62-year-old daughter were critically injured in a house fire started by smoking materials Sunday night.

The fire department initially said the two were in serious-to-critical condition on Sunday, but a source said both were upgraded to critical on Monday.

About 7:30 p.m., firefighters responded to a home in the 7300 block of South Euclid for a report of a fire and people trapped, Fire Media Affairs spokesman Jeff Lyle said. Both were removed from the home and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center. The fire was extinguished about a half-hour later, Lyle said.

Fire officials determined on Monday that the fire was started by misuse of smoking materials. No smoke detectors worked on the second floor.

WVON posted on its Facebook page that it is praying for Lucky and his daughter.

“Lucky Cordell, one of WVON’s infamous “Good Guys”, and his daughter Pat Cordell suffered serious injuries due to a fire in their Southeast Side home,” the post said. “The WVON family sends our prayers and wishes them a speedy recovery!”

Moses “Lucky” Cordell joined WVON in 1965 and worked his way up to station general manager, the Sun-Times previously reported. He was part of the station’s famous set of “Good Guys” personalities.

Lucky Cordell and his team “held Black Chicago captive” for more than 10 years and consistently ranked in the top 5 of the most listened-to stations in the market, according to WVON’s history section on its website.