Firefighters encountered heavy smoke coming from the rear of the house.
"When we first came on the scene, we had heavy fire in the back of the building and heavy smoke advancing into the building," said Battalion Chief Terrence Casey of the Chicago Fire Dept.
Firefighters say there were no smoke detectors in the home. Sunday, they went door-to-door in the area passing out free smoke detectors to residents.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.