Chicago firefighter critically hurt in Rogers Park fire, CFD says
CHICAGO (WLS) -- A Chicago firefighter was hurt after a floor collapsed inside an apartment building in Rogers Park on Monday.
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The fire happened at about 11:30 a.m. in the 1700 block of West North Shore Avenue in Rogers Park, CFD said.
"We had one firefighter go through the floor," CFD Deputy District Chief Kelly Burns said. "He was quickly rescued by members of squad two, one of our heavy rescues in the city. They had him out within, I'm going to say, under a minute from the basement."
The firefighter was taken to Stroger hospital with serious injuries.
The building is an eight-unit, three-floor building with a basement along West North Avenue.
"What we initially thought was fire, a small amount of fire in the back, turned out to be a large volume, kind of running the whole height of the building," Burns said.
Witness Eric Newswanger said he was on a call with a co-worker when he smelled the smoke in his building a block away from the fire.
"These are big apartments, there's a lot of people inside," Newswanger said. "There's definitely the firefighters themselves just hoping everyone's okay."
Chicago Fire says seven people who live in the building were displaced but they were all able to get out and no one inside was hurt aside from one of the responding firefighters.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, but fire crews do believe the fire originated somewhere in the back of the building.
