Extra-alarm fire in West Garfield Park spreads to multiple homes

An extra-alarm fire spread to multiple homes on Chicago's West Side Monday morning.

The fire was first reported at 4723 W. Fulton St., just east of Cicero Avenue in the West Garfield Park neighborhood. The Cicero Avenue Green Line station is located a short distance to the north.

The fire spread to at least two other homes.

A 2-11 alarm was called for extra equipment and manpower.

A 2-11 alarm brings at least eight engines, four trucks, two tower ladders, five battalion chiefs, a district chief, a deputy district chief, a squad company, an ambulance, and a CFD Command Van to the scene, with around 100 firefighters responding.

As seen from CBS Skywatch, the back of one house on the block appeared to be burned down to its support beams. Another house appeared charred.

A photo from the Fire Department showed a pair of two-story wood-frame houses gutted, and a third house also severely damaged.

"Those houses are approximately four to five feet apart. And, you know, when the fire gets a really good start, and it's actually burning, that can contribute to the extensions of those other exteriors," said CFD District Chief of Special Operations Jamar Sullivan.

Antonio Harris said that seven people, including himself, were inside his home and were able to get everyone out safely. He added that his grandparents were the second Black family to move on the block in 1962, and now their house is gone.

Harris said he and his wife were asleep with their grandchild inside their bedroom.

"She said she smelled smoke," he said. "She called up front and asked her brother if he's cooking. He said no. I jumped up, open the door, and it was big cloud of smoke. There was a fire coming through the window, and I'm like, 'Wow!' We gotta get out of here."

Harris said soon after getting his family and pets out of their home, he immediately went to neighbors' homes and knocked on their doors.

"I didn't want anybody to get hurt, so yeah. Just went over there and knocked on the door, banging on it," he said.

Meanwhile, another video shows a man racing inside to make sure families were out.

"As I arrived at the building, I noticed it was on fire. I ran inside the building. I was able to knock on the first and second floor. There was no one downstairs," said Deno Conley.

Conley said he was taking his wife to work when he saw the smoke. He said by the time he made his way through one residential building, there were no more families inside.

Conley said he is trained to save people from dangerous situations and credits his background as an aviation security officer at O'Hare Airport.

"I'm a first responder. I'm an aviation security officer at O'Hare. It's what I do on the daily, so I think some of my work training prepared me for this situation," Conley said. "I'm just glad I was there to help."

The fire department said they don't have the exact count of how many people were inside the home, but said that 26 people were impacted by the blaze. It is unclear if any people were inside the other two houses at the time of the fire.

There was no report of injuries in the fire. The fire was extinguished shortly after noon. 

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.