2 women dead in 'suspicious' Kelvyn Park fire

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Two women were killed in what fire officials are calling a "suspicious" fire at an apartment building in the 4500-block of West Parker in the Kelvyn Park neighborhood, located on Chicago's Northwest Side.

Bomb and Arson detectives are now looking for what ignited the fire that began around 11:40 p.m. Thursday night. The building structure never caught fire, Chicago Fire Department officials said, but something inside that unit was burning.

The women, both in their 20s, lived in the basement of the building, where the fire began. Police have not yet released the victims' identities. Other residents of the Kelvyn Park neighborhood two-flat were able to escape without injury.

Relative Tanya Serrano says she learned about the death of her niece and the niece's girlfriend on the news.

"I was just with them a few weeks ago and we met her over here. It was my brother, and her, and their girlfriends living here," Serrano said.

Serrano says her brother and his girlfriend lived with the couple, and they worked in a factory together.

"They both worked for a living, they were just you know, trying to make it by, working in the same place and trying to make a good life," Serrano said.

Although residents and the building's owner confirm there were working smoke detectors throughout the building, fire officials did not find any inside the basement unit. Fire officials also said accelerants were found inside the basement.

Leslie Gonzalez and her mother and older brother Joel live upstairs. She said she was sleeping when she heard something, and her mother ran into her room screaming "Fire!"

"When they finally broke in, all the black smoke started coming out, it started just going everywhere," said Leslie Gonzalez. "It's scary, I never thought, it looked like a movie to me."

She said that a man lived with the two female roommates in the basement apartment, although he was not home at the time.

"I'd go to work in the morning, I'd see one or two of them. They'd say hi to me, and that's it. Coming out of work, I'd see maybe the guy that lived there, and he'd say hello to me, how are you, that's it," said Leslie Gonzalez.

Joel Gonzalez says the building just got new smoke detectors.

"When they said that they weren't set up, I just found that weird, because this building is literally filled with smoke detectors," said Joel Gonzalez.

Neighbors said the women had just moved in over the summer.