A fire tore through a Lawndale home Wednesday, critically injuring a beloved community matriarch and killing her adult son.
Dessie Street escaped the flames on her own and collapsed outside her home at 1249 S. Kedvale Ave.
The body of her son, Carlos Street, was later recovered in the charred wreckage. He likely tried to flee but was crushed by debris near the front door, Chicago Fire Department officials said.
Two Chicago police officers arrived just after 1 a.m. before fire crews. They were injured when the front porch collapsed as they searched for Carlos Street, authorities said.
One officer was pulled from the burning debris and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in serious condition. He has since stabilized. The other officer, whose leg was caught in the rubble, was treated at Rush University Medical Center and has been released.
Dessie Street, who is in her 70s, was initially taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition, where she was intubated, Chicago Fire Department spokesperson Larry Langford said Wednesday afternoon. She suffered burns and smoke inhalation.
She was stabilized and taken to the hospital’s burn unit, her brother, Joseph Johnson, said Wednesday evening.
“She’s doing a little better, we’re praying for the best, so that’s the good thing,” Johnson said.
Johnson identified Dessie and Carlos Street for the Sun-Times. He stood outside for hours Wednesday morning as fire crews used an excavator to take apart the gutted home searching for his nephew.
“I’m hurt, I also feel numb. I’ve been crying all morning,” Johnson said. “At the same time, I gotta keep it together for my family.”
Johnson said Carlos Street was a “real sweet kid” in his 30s and had special needs.
Carlos Street enjoyed video games and had a talent for working with computers, Johnson said.
He lived with his mom, a seamstress who ran her business out of the home and had lived there for 25 years, Johnson said.
Relatives and neighbors described her as a leader and community matriarch who would always lend a helping hand. She was often available to provide a last-minute hem on a dress or to patch a hole.
“She’s like a mother to everybody in the neighborhood,” Johnson said of his older sister.
Her birthday is Thursday, Johnson said. For every birthday, he brings her poinsettia flowers and Champagne to celebrate.
“She raised me. My mother died when I was 14, so she’s always been like a second mother to me,” Johnson said.
Next-door neighbor Sylvester Jackson said he was awakened by Dessie Street yelling for help before firefighters knocked on his door to warn him about the fire.
“I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God, I’m gonna be homeless,’” Jackson told the Sun-Times. “That’s the first thing that came to my mind. I’m looking at this horrific fire.”
He saw Street collapsed and covered with cuts and scrapes outside her home.
“It hit me hard, seeing her down on the ground like that,” Jackson said.
Jackson, 62, said he’s known Dessie Street and her family his whole life. He was good friends with one of her brothers when they were growing up, and their two families have been close for generations.
“She’s a real special lady; it’s just awful this happened to her,” Jackson said.
The search for Carlos Street
During a news conference at the fire scene, fire department District Chief Jim McDonough said the police officers were in the area and arrived ahead of firefighters when the 12-by-12-foot porch collapsed.
“They went in to look for the second victim,” McDonough said. “They kicked the front door in, and the amount of fire and smoke came over them, and that front porch came loose.”
The attic collapsed onto the first floor of the home, officials said, burying Carlos Street under several feet of debris. It took crews hours to recover his body.
“He was found on the first floor, in the front, not too far from the front door,” Langford said. “He must have been trying to make his way out.”
The flames died down by 8 a.m., and gas service was shut off so the fire department could use heavy equipment to dismantle the structure and search for Carlos Street.
Before Street’s body was found, fire department Cmdr. Walter Schroeder said officials knew one person might still be inside, but firefighters were not able to get into the building because they feared it could collapse.
Before she was taken away in an ambulance, Dessie Street told firefighters and officers she thought her son was still inside, Langford said.
Fire crews tore the house down Wednesday morning. The cause of the fire remains unknown, Langford said, and determining a cause might be impossible given the damage.
“The forensic evidence is pretty much destroyed as the building was taken apart, so we’re gonna have to go on witness statements,” Langford said. “It’s going to take a while, if we ever know.”
