Two people were hospitalized Friday morning after an extra-alarm fire erupted in an Edgewater apartment building.
The “heavy fire” at 5200 N. Sheridan Road started about 8:15 a.m. and began spreading, according to the fire department.
Ladders were raised to the sixth floor for several people “at windows looking to get out,” the department said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Two people were taken in serious-to-critical condition to Illinois Masonic Hospital and Swedish Covenant Hospital, Deputy District Chief Kelly Burns said.
The resident of the sixth-floor unit where the fire started was in the lobby when firefighters arrived and was one of the people taken to the hospital, Burns said.
One woman was rescued from her fourth-floor window when she was threatening to jump. Another resident was rescued from the sixth floor.
“This was a tough fire,” Burns told reporters outside of the 230-unit building.
Burns said the fire was upgraded twice within five minutes of the crews being on the scene as fire was blowing out the window of the sixth floor and could be seen from seven blocks away.
Burns said building management had offered some of its more than 40 empty units to residents who had been displaced, leaving actual displacement at zero.
Fire officials said the building wasn’t required to have sprinklers because of its age.
Residents were concerned about not hearing fire alarms. Several residents said they were alerted to the fire through a tenants union group chat about 8:15 a.m. or by first responders banging on their doors.
“I didn’t hear a single fire alarm,” said Victor Mitchell, who has lived in the building for a year and a half. “It’s because of that group chat that we were able to evacuate. Without it, I would’ve gone back to sleep for 10 or 15 minutes.”
Sabrina Stark, who has lived in the building since May, said residents have “raised the concern about the fire alarms.”
“The police were the first way I heard about,” Stark said.
Burns said the lobby alarm was going off but that he couldn’t speak to alarms on individual floors.
Residents were allowed back into the building about 10 a.m.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
The building was cited earlier this year for 16 code violations related to elevator operation, including not having a working alarm bell in its freight elevator and or phones in passenger elevators, according to city records. Another citation was issued for failing to have three keys in the fire service key box.
City inspectors were also brought out in June to inspect the condition of smoke detectors and reports of cockroaches, though an inspector couldn’t get access to the building, according to city records.
In 2021, when the building last passed an annual inspection, it had previously been cited for having obstructions in the stairwells near the seventh and eighth floors, city records show. Another citation was issued the next year because city officials weren’t able to inspect the stairwells.
