Chicago firefighter killed battling high-rise blaze; others injured
One firefighter was killed Wednesday after responding to a high-rise building fire on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, authorities said. Three other firefighters were injured, as were two civilians, CBS Chicago reported.
The department said on Twitter that the "main body" of the fire, at 1212 North Lake Shore Drive, has been put out. As of around 10:30 A.M. ET on Wednesday, the fire was confined to one large apartment on the 27th floor. The building does not have sprinklers on this floor, the department tweeted.
Chicago Fire Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt identified the firefighter who died as 55-year-old Lieutenant Jan Tchoryk, who joined the department in 1997. He was leading a crew responding to the fire, Nance-Holt said, and had to take the stairs to the 27th floor because the elevators were down.
"He was making his way up to the fire floor ... and then he went down," Nance-Holt said in a press conference with Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot and other city officials. "He was with his crews when he did. A mayday was called for help. The crew started treating him right away by doing CPR on the scene and got him back to the lobby where they continued."
An ambulance transported Tchoryk to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he "succumbed to his injuries," Nance-Holt said, later adding that Tchoryk had been on the 11th floor of the building when he collapsed. It's not clear what those injuries were. Nance-Holt said the medical examiner will determine the cause of death.
Nance-Holt remembered Tchoryk as a Navy veteran and family man whose son had recently joined the Chicago Police Department. Tchoryk is the second Chicago firefighter to die in two days: Jermaine Pelt died on Tuesday responding to a fire in Chicago's West Pullman neighborhood. Lightfoot called the two deaths in two days "unprecedented."
CBS Chicago reported that nine firefighters have died in the line of duty since 2012, highlighting the rarity of two deaths so close together.
Nance-Holt said the other three firefighters who were injured were transported to the hospital in "fair to serious" condition. Those firefighters were not identified.
The two civilians were also transported to the hospital in "good condition," Nance-Holt said.
There was no information about what caused the fire at the time of publication. Nance-Holt said that it was a "wind-driven fire."
Nance-Holt said that building management will determine when residents of the high-rise can return to their homes.
