Child dead, 2 injured when extra-alarm fire tears through West Ridge apartment building: 'It was horrible.'

Neighbors including a 29-year-old man broke down a door to try and rescue a child trapped in a burning apartment but couldn't make it in.

"It was very, very smokey and dark inside. We couldn't go in," said Mr. Ahmed, who didn't want his first name used. "We couldn't save the kid."

"It was a very bad situation," Ahmed said.

The extra-alarm fire erupted about 11:15 a.m. in an apartment building in the 2700 block of West Granville Avenue and left the child dead and a woman critically hurt in West Ridge.

Two firefighters were injured when an indoor stairwell gave out. Outside, some porches collapsed after being burned, fire officials said during a media briefing on the scene.

The fire likely started on the first floor of the 12-unit building, but its initial cause and origin was still under investigation, officials said.

It’s unclear if the building was properly equipped with smoke detectors.

Around 100 firefighters responded to the blaze and it took 45 minutes to an hour to extinguish the flames.

Ahmed, who took shelter at a nearby Aldi grocery with his 5-year-old son, lives in the garden unit and was on the phone talking to relatives who live out of state when he noticed a bad smell.

Ahmed checked the wires of appliances and then heard his neighbors "running" downstairs and screaming.

"As soon as I started smelling the smoke I took my kid out," said Ahmed, whose son was home sick from school and was "in shock," Ahmed said of the boy. "He was crying."

He and two neighbors sprang into action when they realized the woman who lives in the apartment was badly hurt and had gotten out but a child was trapped inside. That's when they tried to help.

A person, possibly "pre-teen" age has died and an adult was listed in critical condition at Swedish Covenant Hospital, officials said.

Several firefighters were injured including one who was taken in good condition to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston as a precaution.

At least five ambulances were sent to the scene.

At about 12:30 p.m., fire trucks blocked the intersection of Fairfield and Granville avenues as several firefighters remained on the scene. Many displaced residents looked for somewhere warm to wait while police officers directed traffic.

Red and yellow tape cordoned off the intersection and the south side of the building was scorched and windows were burned out.

Several passersby looked on curiously as crews worked and by 1 p.m., firefighters were rolling up hoses and loading gear back into the trucks.

Zain Abedin lives across the street and was in a meeting when he got a text from his neighbor about the fire at around 11:10 a.m.

Abedin looked outside and saw smoke pouring from the third floor, then sudden “balls of flames” racing up the building. “It just kept raging,” he said. “Flames kept climbing. I think they did everything they could. It’s absolutely tragic.”

Abedin and his two daughters, ages 1 and 4, watched the firefighters work.

“I was scared, absolutely scared,” he said. “I didn’t know how to react so I can’t imagine how someone inside would react.”

Jose Sanchez lives in the building and was home when he smelled smoke and a woman screaming. Shortly after that, he saw her while leaving the building.

“I saw the lady screaming, bloody, burned,” Sanchez said.

The woman, who he didn’t know personally, said her 6-year-old was upstairs.

“The whole building was fire, smoke, heat from the windows, they shattered,” Sanchez said.

A warming bus got to the scene and firefighters offered hot chocolate.

His kids were in school across the street and Sanchez wondered where they would go when they get out at 3:30 p.m.

Another resident, Ricky Gonzalez, was standing outside wearing only pajamas.

“I can’t even get in my car, the keys are upstairs. “I’m stuck outside. I wasn’t cold but I’m starting to feel it now.”

Gonzalez also saw the woman who was badly burned. “She was yelling about her six-year-old inside.”

“It was horrible, it was horrible.”