2 Found Dead At Fire Scene, 2 Firefighters Injured
CHICAGO (STMW) -- Two people were found dead inside a vacant building that caught fire Friday night on the Northwest Side, authorities said. Two firefighters also suffered minor injuries.
Emergency personnel responded about 8:15 p.m. to a fire in the 2400 block of North Marmora Avenue and found two people dead inside, police News Affairs Officer Veejay Zala said.
Fire Department District Chief Timothy Sampey said the bodies were found on the second floor of the 2 ½-story frame building. The fire appears to have started on the second floor and spread to the attic.
Neighbor Dino Masciopinto said squatters pulled up boards to get into the two-story building and would go sleep in the back.
"We've been trying to get the alderman and bank to tear it down, but they wouldn't do it," Masciopinto said. "Sometimes the cops would come and kick them out and they go right back inside."
Masciopinto's son, 17-year-old Dominic Masciopinto, said he saw smoke flames 15 feet into the air coming from the second floor of the building and went to a neighboring house where he saw a back porch on fire.
"Off of instinct, I was knocking on windows, pounding on doors, nobody was answering the door so I knocked the door in," the younger Masciopinto said.
He helped two elderly people and a man in his 20s safely out of the neighboring building.
Two firefighters also suffered minor injuries and were taken to Our Lady of Resurrection Hospital.
The two-alarm fire was extinguished by about 9 p.m., according to unconfirmed dispatch reports.
The CTA rerouted No. 72 Fullerton buses in both directions, the CTA said.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation Friday night.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2012. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
