A fire Sunday night in a six-story apartment building in Richton Park left one person dead and prompted the temporary evacuation of the entire building, fire Chief Mick Smith said.
Smith said crews responded at 9:58 p.m. to a structure fire at 1000 Cedar Ridge Lane.
When crews arrived, he said they observed smoke coming from a third-floor apartment. Crews then deployed hose lines to put out the flames.
Crews from surrounding areas assisted with a search of the apartment and found one victim badly injured, who was taken to the hospital, Smith said.
Smith said the victim later died from injuries. All other apartments were evacuated and searched, and no other victims were found, he said.
Most residents in the building are seniors, Smith said, which prompted the Fire Department’s decision to evacuate the building.
“In lieu of safety for those residents all being seniors and having medical conditions, we believed that it was in the best interest of residents to put them in temporary housing until the property managers were able to do some mitigation of at least the smell and the overlay of smoke still remaining,” the chief said.
Smith said no other residents had serious injuries, but because the building primarily housed seniors and many people were evacuated, the ambulance response was upgraded. Several residents were checked by medical personnel to ensure there were no other injuries, he said.
Smith said most of the damage was confined to the third floor where the fire started, though apartments on other floors had water damage. Crews worked to ventilate the heavy smoke and odors, successfully clearing most of the smoke from the top three floors, he said.
“We just didn’t want to put the residents in any sort of harmful situation,” he said.
Red Cross and the building’s property manager assisted residents with finding housing, Smith said.
“A lot of the residents went to family members homes, but there were residents that needed temporary housing and we were able to get hotel rooms,” Smith said.
Smith said the property manager is working with restoration companies to prepare apartments with minimal damage for reentry, though a timeline has not yet been confirmed. However, he said they hope it won’t take longer than 48 to 72 hours to begin moving residents back in.
The Illinois State Fire Marshal is investigating the cause of the fire, Smith said.
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