Woman Dead, 12 Injured in Streeterville High-Rise Fire

The blaze reminded at least one resident of a fatal fire at the building, the Plaza on DeWitt, nearly eight years ago.

The five-alarm fire started about 12:50 a.m. Thursday in a 36th floor condominium unit of the 51-floor residential building at 260 E. Chestnut St., Chicago Fire Commissioner John Brooks said.

Fire Media Affairs Director Larry Langford said about a third of the city’s fire equipment was on the scene, with many firefighters helping residents exit from the upper floors. Brooks said about 275 firefighters battled the blaze.

A woman inside unit 3601 called 911 to report smoke in her condo, and responding firefighters saw fire blowing out of the windows and smoke billowing into the hallways, Brooks said.

Firefighters found a woman, the unit’s only resident, near the door of her apartment -- possibly trying to escape, Brooks said. The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office confirmed the fatality, but the woman’s name and age were not being released Thursday morning.

Shortly after the blaze started, orange flames could be seen coming from two western windows and white smoke was billowing from the roof of the building. By 2 a.m., the fire had spread to the south side of the building. Brooks said the fire blowing out the 36th floor unit ignited a fire on the 37th floor.

After it spread to 37, shards of glass began falling and scattered across the street outside the building.

Firefighters helped 45 to 50 people exit the building, mostly from the smoke-filled upper floors, fire officials said. Two CTA warming buses are on the scene for people who can’t get back into their units.

OEMC Deputy Director William Schatz said one of the people removed was a 100-year-old woman, who was wrapped in a blanket and brought to the lobby of a building across the street. OEMC is also helping multiple people with medical and breathing problems, he said.

One resident didn’t wait for firefighters to arrive and took his 6-year-old daughter to the roof the building, where he was eventually rescued by firefighters.

Thirty-ninth floor resident Jeff Amsel said he smelled smoke, called the doorman and went down to the 38th floor to investigate. When he returned to the 39th floor, the 38-year-old consultant saw smoke pouring into the hallway and grabbed his 6-year-old daughter, Alicia Amsel, and carrier her up to the roof, he said.

Once on the roof, Amsel called 911 again and waited about 40 minutes until he was rescued by fire crews, he said. Langford said firefighters brought them down from the roof through the building.

“We were really scared. I had shorts on and she was freezing,” Amsel said. “I was just so scared. There was a tremendous amount of smoke …There was smoke billowing everywhere because the winds were so high.”

When asked what was going through his mind during the incident, Amsel said “9-11,” while covering his daughter with blankets and consoling the little girl, who had a tear-streaked face but was cheerfully talking to another little girl displaced from the fire.

Amsel said about five or six firefighters helped them to a corner of the roof, then down through a freight elevator to safety.

"She's a little cold, but she's warming up," Amsel said of his daughter as they warmed in a lobby at 247 E. Chestnut. “I’m just glad we got out.”

Twelve people, including five firefighters, were injured in the blaze, which displaced about 10 people, Brooks said.

A 55-year-old man was initially taken in critical condition to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center with smoke inhalation and 11 other people, including five firefighters, were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to Fire Media. All of the victims were adults.

The American Red Cross of Greater Chicago is assisting residents displaced by the fire, according to OEMC Executive Director Ray Orozco who was also on the scene.

Disaster relief workers specializing in mental health were sent to the scene to help with the emotional needs of those affected, according to a Red Cross statement.

Tenth-floor resident Lindsay McCutcheon, 26, who works for an executive search firm, was getting ready to walk her Maltese poodle “Graham” when the fire started. “I smelled smoke,” she said.

“I was going down the west stairwell and I got soaked by the water (gushing down the stairs),” she said.

Once she got outside, a woman who