Multiple residents displaced after 2 Chicago area apartment fires

Multiple families in Chicago and in north suburban Deerfield were forced out of their homes by two separate fires this weekend.

Fire breaks out at Englewood apartment building

Chicago firefighters say everyone escaped an apartment building when flames tore through Sunday afternoon.

Flames took over the back stairs and top floors at this multi-family building in the 6400 block of South Normal Avenue on the city's South Side.

One family who lives in the building, who didn't want to be on camera, said they only moved in a few months ago after living in a shelter. Turning the corner to come back home, they saw the smoke, hoped it wasn't their building, but found their third-floor apartment and everything in it had been destroyed. 

Now, a family with five small boys is looking for another roof over their heads.

Firefighters would spend hours drenching the top of the building. With little wind, smoke filled the street.

The investigation into what started the fire is still ongoing.

More displacements after Deerfield apartment fire

Englewood's fire comes just one day after a total of 16 apartments were impacted by the fire at a building in the 1100 block of Deerfield Road.

The Deerfield Fire Department said the fire broke out around 7:30 p.m. Saturday. When firefighters arrived, a fully involved apartment fire was raging on the second floor, the fire department said. Firefighters were able to get the flames under control from outside before going in.

One person was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation. Two firefighters were also hurt but didn't need to be taken to the hospital.

Following the fire, windows at the apartment building were blown out and parts of the building were left black and charred from smoke.

Crews were spotted at the scene boarding up windows and securing some electrical lines. The fire department said all affected units lost power.

Residents told CBS News Chicago that it could take anywhere from three months to a year before they can return.

Neighbors said the fire spread within minutes. Alice Ann Gusfield said she was in her bathrobe when police began going from door-to-door to alert them of the fire.

"I was pretty shocked," she said. "They said fire and so I immediately gathered my computer, my phone and my keys and came running out … we saw the smoke, a very heavy smoke, coming up behind the building and so, you know, that made me worried"

Officials said the fire may have started in an elderly woman's apartment, and neighbors had to go door-to-door to get each other out.

"It sounds like the resident in the fire unit were attempting to escape her apartment when some of the Good Samaritan neighbors across the hall were able to help assist her out of the unit and out of the structure," said Deerfield Deputy Fire Chief Michael Montondo.

Montondo said the building is segmented off into four sections. Four units were left uninhabitable.

ComEd and North Shore Gas were working on the other sections early Sunday and were hoping to get the rest of the building back open to residents sooner rather than later.

Red Cross volunteers are offering shelter to the families displaced in both of these fires.