Two children were killed Friday by a fast-moving fire in a West Side apartment building that started after clothes were put on a natural gas space heater to dry, emergency officials said.
Firefighters found LaKisha Williams, 4, and her half-brother, 1-year-old Casanova Holloway, in a bedroom of the first floor apartment at 2724 W. Lexington St., emergency officials said. A family friend, Barbara McGhee, 35, who lived in the apartment and was not injured in the fire, had been baby-sitting the children.
The blaze, which started shortly before noon, injured two others, including a Chicago police officer, and left five families homeless.
The children’s mother, Latisha Williams, 20, who is six months’ pregnant with twins, said she didn’t blame McGhee, whom she described as a lifelong friend, but
Williams described LaKisha and Casanova as lovely and smart children. Relatives had been trying to figure out what to do for Casanova’s second birthday on April 14. Just the other day, LaKisha had said she wanted to be a doctor when she grew up, just like one of her aunts.
Williams and her children used to live across the street from McGhee but had moved to South Francisco Avenue.
“She watched my kids all the time for me,” said Williams, who said she gave up an assembly-line job because of her pregnancy and does not have the means to bury her children. “I never knew anything like this would happen.”
The fire was ruled accidental and no charges are expected to be filed, said Chicago Police Sgt. Mark Vail.
The fire apparently started after McGhee put clothes on the heater to dry them, said Bill Norris, a Chicago Fire Department spokesman. McGhee and the children took a nap, and when she woke up there was smoke in the apartment, Vail said.
Vail said McGhee told detectives she could not find the children in the smoke, so she ran outside to get help.
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McGhee declined to comment.
The blaze was reported at 11:54 a.m., and the building was engulfed in flames by the time firefighters arrived. The fire eventually spread to a neighboring building.
Neighbors and Police Officer Mary Segal attempted to rescue the children but were turned back by the smoke and fire, according to Detective Timothy O’Meara of the Bomb and Arson Section. Segal was taken to Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center, where she was treated for smoke inhalation and released, according to a spokeswoman.
Neighbor Johnnie Williams, 76, was in good condition at Mt. Sinai Hospital after being brought in for possible smoke inhalation, according to a spokeswoman. Johnnie Williams, who is not related to the children, was expected to be released late Friday.
His grandson, David Sumrell, who lives in the same building, was one of the people who tried to rescue the children. After smelling smoke in his apartment, Sumrell looked out a back bathroom window and heard McGhee screaming.
“The smoke was coming out of every window,” he said. “I ran to the back and I heard neighbors screaming, `There’s children in there, there’s children in there.’ “
He went downstairs to his grandmother’s bedroom window, opened it and called the children’s names but got no answer.