2-year-old boy dies in West Pullman fire, mom suffers burns trying to save him

A 2-year-old boy died in a house fire late Tuesday morning in West Pullman on the Far South Side.

His mother tried to rescue the boy from the second-floor bedroom where a small fire started but was unable to and escaped with burns to her body, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.

Firefighters arrived at the home in the 12200 block of Lafayette Avenue and pulled the child from the room around 11:30 a.m., Langford said.

Paramedics took him in cardiac arrest to Roseland Community Hospital. Despite resuscitation efforts from firefighters and hospital staff, the child was pronounced dead.

The boy was identified as Ace Jackson by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

The mother was taken to the same hospital, where her condition stabilized, Langford said. Two other women in the home refused medical attention.

The fire was small and contained inside of the house, Langford said. The damage was mostly to the carpet and interior items.

Investigators were “paying attention” to a space heater inside the room where the fire started, but it was too early to determine the fire’s cause, he said.

There was no working smoke detector in the home, Langford said, adding that a working smoke detector could have alerted people downstairs.