Chicago firefighter dies after falling through skylight shaft atop burning apartment building
A Chicago firefighter died Monday morning after he fell through a skylight shaft atop a burning four-story apartment building in the city’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.
Andrew “Drew” Price was just shy of his 40th birthday and had been with the Chicago Fire Department for 14 years. He was on the roof opening up ventilation holes and extinguishing hot spots when he fell through the shaft, Fire Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt said.
A “mayday” was called immediately and Price was found, but his colleagues had to bust through a wall to reach him. Though responsive, he was in critical condition with “significant injuries,” and later died at Illinois Masonic Medical Center, Nance-Holt said.
“We all knew Drew,” she said. “Drew worked out. He was a health nut. Loved by so many and will be missed by all.”
The fire broke out around 6 a.m., the commissioner said. Officials had not yet determined what started the blaze, though Nance-Holt told WLS-TV that it might have been a kitchen fire.
The Lincoln Station bar and restaurant is on the ground floor, with apartments on the upper floors. The building is also near the Lincoln Hall music venue. Most of the residents are DePaul University students.
Price was trapped in an apartment’s pantry space, resident Madison Carter told WLS-TV.
“It’s traumatizing to think that at some point we may have to go back and understand that that’s where someone lost their life,” she said.
“This job is a very, very, very dangerous job, and we go to work and we never know who will come home,” Nance-Holt noted.
Devastated firefighters mourned the fourth colleague killed in the line of duty this year.
“He was a lovely man,” CFD Battalion Chief Michael McCormick said of the husband and father, according to WLS. “He was as sweet as could be. He took extremely good care of himself and his family. He was extremely healthy. He was a light of sunshine. He never had a bad thing to say about anybody.”
Price’s fellow firefighters lined the route as his body was escorted in a convoy from the hospital to the medical examiner’s office, WMAQ-TV reported.
“Our collective hearts are heavy this morning,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement. “Andrew gave his life in service to the City of Chicago, taking his position at the front lines of a threat to our safety and community. He made the ultimate sacrifice to protect those in harm’s way — a debt we can never repay.”
With News Wire Services
