A fire left 4 children dead and 2 adults critically injured early Monday on Chicago's South Side, police said.
A multi-unit building at the 11200 block of South Vernon was engulfed in fire at 3:25 a.m. that killed the children, police News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines said. The Cook County medical examiner's office did not immediately confirm the fatalities.
Chicago Fire Department Chief Michael Fox said upon their arrival the fire-fighters found "heavy fire blowing" from the building's windows. The blaze seemed to have started on the second floor of an 18-unit apartment building in the Roseland neighborhood at about 3 a.m., authorities said, reports the Associated Press.
The adults, apparently the mother and her boyfriend, were in a critical condition and rushed to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. They had jumped out of the building to escape the fire, according to police and a neighbour, reports Chicago Sun-Times.com. Neighbors said the four children in that apartment included a 6-year-old girl, a 16-year-old girl, and two boys, about 11 or 12 years old.
Around 50 other residents escaped the fire, authorities said. Albert Miller who lives on the second floor of the building said he screamed to try and get his neighbors out of the building after his dog's barking woke him. According to him, he saw two people jump from the building. "As I was coming out the front door, two people came flying out the window. A lady and a man hit the ground," Miller told WLS-TV. The fire was reportedly extinguished by 4:30 a.m.
