Woman sues owner of Northwest Side building that caught fire, killing her nephew

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A woman has filed a lawsuit against the owner of a Northwest Side building that caught fire, killing one of her nephews and severely burning his parents.

The surviving children, 7-year-old Amar and 8-year-old Hafsa Kahn, are now in Dallas living with their aunt, Safia Kahn. She has filed the lawsuit in the hopes of finding out what led to the deadly blaze that killed her nephew, 10-year-old Ans Kahn.

"They said they just woke up and the parents are screaming, 'We have a fire in our house and we have to jump from the window,'" Safia said.

It's a death the family's attorney says could have been prevented.

"The family had no warning. So there were no working smoke detectors in the unit," said Tim Cavanaugh, the family's attorney.

The fire broke out in the early morning hours of Nov. 9 at 5735 North Kimball. It spread quickly up the building, trapping the Kahns, who lived on the third floor. The mother and father had to resort to dropping their two youngest children to safety, but their oldest would not allow himself to be thrown.

"The third one is scared of heights. And he started running inside the room," Safia said.

Ans became trapped and died in the fire. His parents were able to jump to safety, but both sustained such severe injuries that they are still in intensive care at Stroger Hospital. The children's father, Tahir Kahn, remains heavily-medicated and is often confused and delirious. He still does not know his son died in the fire.

"He says 'I want to tell them. I want to see my kids,'" Safia said. "And the other moment he forgets what he started talking about and says, 'I see fire all the time. The smoke in there.'"

The lawsuit was filed against the building's owner who, over a close to ten-year period, has racked up over 100 code violations with the city's building department. Seven of the violations were issued for failing to repair or replace smoke detectors; the latest violation was in 2012.

"This landlord did not care about his tenants. He didn't care about this family," Cavanaugh said.

An official cause of the fire has not been determined.