Chicago Firefighter Killed While Battling South Side House Fire: CFD

CHICAGO — A Chicago firefighter died early Tuesday after he went down while exiting a building while battling a house fire that spread to two other buildings on the city’s South Side early Tuesday.

Chicago Fire officials identified the firefighter as Jermaine Pelt, 49, who died after being taken to Christ Medical Center in critical condition, officials said. Two other firefighters were injured in the fire, which started around 3:15 a.m. in Chicago’s West Pullman neighborhood.

The fire started in the attic of a 2 ½ story home on 120th Street and Wallace, fire officials said. The fire eventually spread to two neighboring buildings. Fire officials said in a news conference that Pelt went down after he and other firefighters were ordered out of the building they were in.

On Tuesday, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms announced it had dispatched a response team to the scene of the fire to assist in the investigation. The Chicago Fire Department has not made any statements about what could have caused the fires to become so intensified.

An emotional Chicago Fire Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt said in a news conference outside the hospital that Pelt was on the hose line battling one of the fires when conditions worsened. Pelt had been with the Chicago Fire Department had 2005 and has an adult daughter who he had recently walked down the aisle at her wedding and who is on her honeymoon. Pelt also has a 6-year-old child at home, officials said.

The crew’s lieutenant pulled Pelt from the building and immediately started life-saving measures, officials said. The home was vacant at the time of the fire, officials said and the other two firefighters taken to the hospital with injuries are in stable condition.