CHICAGO (AP) — Eight people, including six children, were killed when a fire broke out before dawn Sunday at a Chicago apartment in one of the deadliest fires in the nation’s third-largest city in years, officials say. A passerby saw smoke at the rear of the building around 4 a.m. local time, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said. At least one firefighter was injured and was hospitalized in good condition. According to family members, the victims include: three-month-old Maya Almaraz, Ariel Garcia, age five, Lonni Ayala, age three, Gialonni Ayala, age five, Xavier Contreras, age 11, Nathan Contreras, age 13, Giovanni Ayala, age 10, and Victor Mendoza, age 16. "We have not had this in many, many, many years — this amount of fatalities and injuries in one location," Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago said. She called 911 around 4 a.m., then began knocking on doors in the largely Hispanic Little Village neighborhood on the city’s southwest side. Marcos Contreras wasn't home, but he said there was a sleepover in a second floor unit of a coach house on the 2200 block of South Sacramento Saturday night, where older siblings were watching over the younger ones. The cause of the blaze hasn’t been determined. Officials had not released the names or ages of the victims, all of whom were in the same residence, Merritt said. “Our death count would have definitely been lower or non-existent if working smoke detectors were in this structure,” Langford said.
Eight people die in a house fire in Chicago, Illinois.