Residents say that fire alarm system did not go off during Uptown fire
Chicago news source Lake Effect News is reporting tonight that there was a severe fire in an Uptown SRO this afternoon. Editor Lorraine Swanson reported that the fire on the seventh-floor left one man with personal injuries of second-degree burns. He also suffered from smoke inhalation. Dozens of other residents exited their units and many residents told Lake Effect News that the building’s alarm system did not go off during the fire; they were ignorant of the fire until the fire trucks pulled up. One witness told Lake Effect News that firefighters were knocking on doors looking for the fire and smoke came pouring out when they found the unit with the fire. Firefighters used a thermal imaging camera to find the victim who was lying on the floor.
Fortunately, this fire appears to have been contained to the one unit and did not spread to other parts. If residents’ accounts of non-functioning smoke detectors and fire alarms are true, this fire could have led to tragic results. We will keep watching as this story unfolds.
Click here to read the Lake Effect News story on the Uptown fire.
The injury attorneys at Levin & Perconti are familiar with what tragedies occur when smoke detectors fail. The Illinois fire injury attorneys represented families of six children who died in a tragic apartment fire in 2006 in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. Two other children were severely injured in the fire. The Chicago landlords of the apartment building failed to ensure that the unit had functioning smoke detectors. This violated the Chicago Municipal Code. In 2007, the injury attorneys obtained a $6 million settlement on behalf of the families of the Rogers Park apartment fire victims in their lawsuit against the building owners and managers.
To read more about the 2007 wrongful death settlement, click here.
