‘I thought I was going to die’: 7 transported, baby critical after South Shore high-rise fire prompts evacuations

CHICAGO — Seven people were hospitalized, including a baby rushed in critical condition, following a two-alarm fire Wednesday that prompted evacuations at a high-rise building on the South Side.

The fire began just before 4 p.m. in the apartment building at 7144 South Jeffery Boulevard in the South Shore neighborhood.

On Thursday morning, Chicago Fire Department officials said the fire was accidental and was caused by unattended cooking in a second-floor unit of the 14-story building. Flames began to travel up the stairwell of the building, which, fire officials say, required firefighters to make several rescues with smoke seen throughout the building.

“I thought I was going to die,” said trapped resident Tanesha Griggs, adding that she was desperate for fresh air as she waved and waited for fire crews amid smoke pouring out of her apartment.

“I really thought I was going to die.”

Chicago fire crews told WGN-TV at the scene that seven people were taken to a nearby hospital via ambulance. That included a baby rushed to Comer Children’s Hospital in critical condition, fire officials said. One person’s injury status is considered fair after officials say that person jumped from the fourth floor.

“Above the floors of 12, 13 and 14, we had to rescue from the inside,” CFD First District Chief Jim McDonough said. “The elevators were out. We had to use the stairwells to rescue the victims from the inside, pull them out of the windows.

“They were threatening to jump.”

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SkyCam9 flew above the scene, where firefighters could be seen guiding people down the fire escape while others waited to be rescued. Residents were seen hanging out of windows and waving sheets.

“I told them I would’ve jumped out,” Griggs said. “I started tying the covers up to hang down to try to reach the ladder.

” … This whole building is charred. There was no way out.”

“A lot of us were stull stuck in there, and we were trapped and begging for our life,” added 12th-floor resident Dedrick Washington. “I was gasping for air, I was spitting out black stuff, coming out of my nose and my mouth.”

“The metal, everything, was hot, even as I was coming down the stairs,” Griggs said.

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McDonough said that some of the residents rescued were elderly or in a wheelchair.

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The fire was extinguished in about an hour-and-a-half, with 155 firefighters responding to the scene. No firefighters were injured.

There is no update yet on the condition of the seven hospitalized victims.

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