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Thread: 8 Children Die In House Fire During Sleepover

  1. #1
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    8 Children Die In House Fire During Sleepover

    https://abc7ny.com/8-children-teens-...-fire/4061154/

    8 children, teens killed in Chicago fire

    Eight children and teens killed in a fire early Sunday in the Little Village neighborhood on the Southwest Side have been identified.


    By John Garcia and Michelle Gallardo
    Sunday, August 26, 2018 06:33PM

    CHICAGO, Illinois -- Eight children and teens killed in a fire early Sunday in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago have been identified.

    All of the victims are 16 and younger. One was just 3 months old. Two other teenagers were critically injured.

    It is a tragedy beyond comprehension. Eight children dead. Two more hospitalized, clinging to life. All from the same family. The result of an early morning fire in Little Village.

    According to family members, the children ranged in age from 3 months to 16 years. The victims have been identified as Amayah Almaraz, three months old; Alanni Ayala, 3; Ariel Garcia, 5; Gialonni Ayala, 5; Giovanni Ayala, 10; Xavier Contreras, 11; Nathan Contreras, 13; and Victor Mendoza, 16.

    "We have not had this in many, many years. This amount of fatalities and injuries in one location," said Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago.

    It is in fact, the worst house fire registered in the city of Chicago in recent memory.

    The fire started on the enclosed rear porch of a coach house behind a three-story apartment building about 4 a.m. in the 2200 block of South Sacramento Avenue, according to Chicago Fire Media Affairs and Chicago police.

    The family says there was a sleepover going on Saturday night and that the deceased are from at least two families.

    A neighbor came home from work just before 4 a.m., saw smoke and called 911.

    "The person who came and made the initial call also started knocking on doors and telling people there was a fire, so they basically started to self-evacuate as the fire companies got on the scene. So the female who did that saved a lot of lives," said Chicago Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago.

    Fire officials say many of the victims were already dead when they arrived. The victims were all found on the second floor. The first floor was vacant.

    Marcos Contreras lost two brothers and two sisters in the fire, along with three cousins. They were, he says, having a sleepover.

    "I don't even know how I'm going to wake up and continue life, knowing that my brothers and sisters are six feet underground," Contreras said.

    It's not clear who was supervising the children.

    Fourteen-year-olds Ceasar Contreras and Adrian Hern?ndez are at Stroger Hospital still on life support.

    Relatives today placed crosses with the names of the dead in front of the home.

    The Bureau of ATF has been called in to help with the investigation, but officials say not to draw any conclusions as they have not yet determined if the fire was accidental or otherwise.

    There were no working smoke detectors.

    According to the Building Department website in Chicago, the building failed its last inspection in June due to electrical issues.

    Fire officials are investigating.

  2. #2
    Senior Member Non_Saepe's Avatar
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    Not another slumber party death!

    No working smoke detectors. Fuck. So I'm guessing the parents got out since no adults died?

  3. #3
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    We need to amend the title



    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...827-story.html

    9th child dies from Little Village fire as investigators still search for cause

    9 dead in Little Village fire



    Nine people, identified by relatives as children, were killed in an extra-alarm fire early the morning of Aug. 26, 2018, in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood.


    A ninth child has died from an apartment fire in Little Village as investigators continue examining forensic evidence to determine what started the city's deadliest blaze in at least a decade.

    Cesar Contreras, 14, was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition after the Sunday fire and died Monday evening, according to the Cook County medical examiner?s office. Another 14-year-old boy remains hospitalized at Stroger, his condition too critical for investigators to interview him, officials said.

    The other children who died have been identified as Amayah Almaraz, 3 months old; Alanni Ayala, 3; Gialanni Ayala, 5; Ariel Garcia, 5; Giovanni Ayala, 10; Xavier Contreras, 11; Nathan Contreras, 13; and Victor Mendoza, 16.

    Most of them were first cousins. Mendoza was a close family friend, according to Krystle Sauseda, 31, who said she is an aunt to many of the victims.

    They were at a sleep-over at the apartment in the 2200 block of South Sacramento Avenue when the fire broke out before 4 a.m. Sunday, according to fire officials and relatives. It's unclear if any adults were in the home at the time.

    The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services said it is investigating allegations of neglect involving the children. The agency had prior contact with three families involved in the fire, but none were under investigation at the time of the fire, according to Alissandra Calderon, a spokeswoman for the agency. She would not release the results of the agency?s investigations.

    Police and fire officials have yet to determine what caused the fire and whether it was an accident or intentionally set, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.

    There was evidence of both fireworks and smoking materials in the back enclosed porch, where the fire is believed to have started, according to Larry Langford, Chicago Fire Department spokesman. Officials have ruled out electrical problems as a possible fire source, based on the findings of an engineer with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, he said.

    Fire investigators have found no evidence of smoke detectors where the children were sleeping, Langford said. The home had two bedrooms, but some of the children were asleep in the living room area. No one was found on the porch.

    ?Had there been working smoke detectors, the death toll would have been less or nonexistent,? he said.

    Alice Gutierrez, who is related to the owner of the building, said the owner had installed smoke detectors in the apartment about four months ago. She could not explain why none were found in working order after the fire.



    A man walks by a memorial with images of victims on an iron gate on Aug. 27, 2018, in front of a vacant house near where nine were killed in a house fire in the 2200 block of South Sacramento Avenue. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)


    Public records show a history of poor conditions at the Sacramento property. Tenants have filed multiple complaints with the city?s 311 service since at least 2015 over problems with bedbugs, doors falling off hinges and sinking floors, the records show.

    One complaint from October 2015 said, ?Rats and bed bugs in coach house and the landlord will not do anything about it." There was a hearing but it was not known how the problem was resolved.

    In August of 2015, the city sent a notice of violation to the property owner over a separate complaint that the apartment was "infested with bed bugs, doors are falling off the hinges, tile coming up off the kitchen floor," records show.

    Last year, complaints about bedbugs and other unsafe conditions were closed by city inspectors, who did not find any violations, records show.

    Most recently, the property came to the city?s attention in June when a tenant complained, said Gregg Cunningham, a spokesman for the city?s Buildings Department. The department inspected the building on June 8 and found two electrical code violations, he said.

    Chicago firefighters pass out smoke detectors on Aug. 27, 2018, to nearby residents following the fatal fire in the 2200 block of Sacramento Avenue in Chicago. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

    One of the violations was for an extension cord that ran from the rear building to the main apartments, according to the city?s legal filings. The other was for electrical grounding that caused a basement tenant to get shocked from a tub faucet.

    That case was set for a court date in late September.

    The landlord also owns at least one more apartment in Little Village, for which he's also been disciplined, records show. In 2014, the city issued violations for a unit in the 2300 block of South Drake Avenue that didn't have a carbon monoxide detector, was kept at low temperatures, didn't have a working space heater and didn't have hot water, court records show.

    In response, more than $2,000 worth of repairs was made to the apartment and paid for by the landlord.


    A memorial of crosses, candles, flowers and balloons is growing Aug. 27, 2018, near the site of the fatal fire in the 2200 block of Sacramento Avenue. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)


    About 200 people gathered near the scene of the fire Monday evening for a vigil. Several boys leaned against a silver Acura SUV parked along a row of white crosses surrounded by flickering candles and commemorative tokens, talking about their friend, Xavier Contreras.

    "We were at Limas Park ? did I show you this?" Benny Estrada, a community activist, asked the boys. They crowded around his phone.

    "He finally did it!" one of the boys said, grinning wide.

    On the screen, the 11-year-old Xavier sat in a swing, gripping its chains, his legs pumping against a dark sky. Dressed in a white T-shirt and gray joggers, he swung back and forth, gaining momentum until his black sneakers flipped over his head. He let go of the swing and tucked his legs underneath. He landed on his feet, his palms touching the ground for just a second as he stumbled forward. But he didn't fall.

    Xavier mastered the trick days before his death at a community barbecue at a park at Trumbull Avenue and 24th Street. He'd been working on it over the summer.

    "He's like, 'Record me, record me,' " Estrada said. "I told him not to hit his head."

    Along a fence bordering the sidewalk hung posters, photographs and shiny balloons spelling out the children's names. Messages of love and memories decorated the posters.

    "We love you watch over us," read one.

    "I remember all the fun times we had together," read another.

    And, "I (heart) you best friend."

  4. #4
    10th child dies following Little Village fire

    The death toll from a Sunday morning fire in the city's LIttle Village neighborhood rose Monday night after a teen hospitalized in critical condition died.

    By Michelle Gallardo, Liz Nagy and Megan Hickey
    Tuesday, August 28, 2018 02:26PM
    CHICAGO (WLS) -- The death toll from a Sunday morning fire in the city's Little Village neighborhood rose to ten Tuesday afternoon after a teen died at Stroger Hospital.

    The tenth victim was identified by the Cook County Medical Examiner as Adrian Hernandez, 14. Hernandez died at 11:12 a.m.

    The ninth victim, who died Monday night, was 14-year-old Cesar Contreras, according to the Medical Examiner.

    Authorities have identified the other eight victims as 5-year-old Ariel Garcia, 11-year-old Xavier Contreras, 13-year-old Nathan Contreras, 16-year-old Victor Mendoza, 3-month-old Amayah Almaraz, 3-year-old Alanni Ayala, 10-year-old Giovanni Ayala and 5-year-old Gialanni Ayala.

    The blaze broke out in a coach house in the 2200-block of South Sacramento Avenue. A neighbor came home around 4 a.m., saw the smoke and called 911.





    Families are in mourning after eight children died in a fire in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood Sunday morning.



    Chicago Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago said it was the city's deadliest fire in a decade. In addition to the fatalities, 30 people have been displaced.

    The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but was not electrical in nature and was not arson. Investigators believe the fire started in an enclosed porch at the back of building.

    That enclosed back porch of the coach house was known to be a spot where fireworks activity and smoking has taken place, officials said.

    Investigators said there were no working smoke detectors in the home and no adults appear to have been present at the time of the fire.

    The Department of Children and Family Services is now investigating allegations of neglect involving the children. Officials at DCFS said they have had prior contact with three of the families involved, but do not currently have any open cases.

    "Ponder that for a second," said 12th Ward Alderman George Cardenas today. "Leaving an infant, three months old, in the hands of a sixteen year old, the oldest. And you have a 3-year-old, a five-year-old, a nine-year-old, a ten-year-old. What were they thinking?"

    Alderman Cardenas says his office has working non-stop trying to help them all.

    "School starts Tuesday. We need to get school supplies. We need to get clothing to the children that were displaced as well. We need to get families in housing," he said.

    According to the Building Department website in Chicago, the building failed its last inspection in June due to electrical issues.

    A statement from the department said, "The Department of Buildings inspected 2224 S. Sacramento Ave. on June 8, 2018 in response to a complaint from a tenant. As a result of this inspection, the building was cited for two electrical violations, one for grounding in the front of the building and one for an illegal electrical cord going from the front building to the coach house, and a court date is set for September 24, 2018."

    The landlord and his family dispute the claims that the home was unsafe.

    "There was something that was exposed, just a little bit. But it was fixed on Friday," said Brandy Hernandez, the landlord's daughter.

    The landlord and his family showed ABC7 the most recent violations for issues with electrical wiring. The notice is dated July 24.

    They were cited for an unapproved cord outside of the building, labeled dangerous and hazardous, and asked to install a bonding conductor.

    He said that work was done. The Department of Buildings has not confirmed as of 11 a.m. Monday.

    The owner also claimed that there were working smoke detectors and that inspectors were out at the property several times and they were never cited for issues with safety alarms.

    Marcos Contreras lost two brothers and two sisters in the fire, along with three cousins.

    "I don't even know how I'm going to wake up and continue life, knowing that my brothers and sisters are six feet underground," Contreras said.

    The Cook County Medical Examiner began conducting autopsies Monday. A spokesperson said the cause and manner of death for all eight victims is pending investigation of the origin of the family.

    A memorial to the victims grew outside the home throughout Monday.

    A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the families with funeral and burial costs.

    "We want to collect the most possible to help them," said Reverend Ramiro Rodriguez Monday.

    Representing the Amor De Dios Methodist Church, Rodriguez says they're collecting supplies for the survivors and raising much needed money for the children's funerals.

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