The destruction at 1532 S. Lawndale Ave. was swift and complete.
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Within minutes, a fire early Tuesday swept through the brick structure, claiming seven lives, three of them children.
By daybreak, the three-story husk was one more symbol of tragedy along this impoverished block of Lawndale Avenue where fires have leveled about half a dozen other structures, including the corner church, according to residents.
But this fire ”is the worst one,” said Lettie Holmes, of 1528 S. Lawndale, which also was damaged in the blaze.
The only solace to emerge from the tragedy were the tales of heroism. Those who gathered in front of the building after the fire, their eyes bloodshot from watching it flare up all night, knew that many people, even total strangers, had risked their lives to save others.
According to neighbors, relatives and the building owner, the dead victims were: Joseph Lackland, 13, who graduated in June from nearby Dvorak Elementary School; Steven Pierson, 12, who just completed 6th grade at Dvorak; Linda Pierson, who completed 4th grade at Dvorak; Grady Ramsey, age unknown, step-grandfather of the three children; Willie Mae Ramsey, 57, grandmother of the children; and Clara Leanard, 80, and her son, Robert Norwood, 33.
Stanley Smart, principal at Dvorak, said of the three children: ”They were our best students, the best we had.”
Investigators were at odds over the cause of the blaze. While fire officials said that arson was the cause, police disagreed, saying the cause was undetermined.
”We`re sort of in limbo,” said Sgt. Nicholas Rubino of the Harrison Area. ”We`ve got seven dead. Most of the time is spent figuring out who is who.”
Sgt. Leonard Sykes, of the police bomb and arson unit, confirmed that a gasoline can had been found at the scene but said it was among several other cans in the basement stairwell under the debris of the back porch.
According to investigators, the blaze originated inside the first floor rear porch at approximately 1:30 a.m.
The intense heat incinerated the entire rear porch and melted bicycles and baby carriages that later were piled in an ashen mound in the alley. Trees were charred.
Police said the apartments were equipped with smoke detectors, and a review of records showed that the building had no existing building code violations.
The death count would have been higher, residents said, had it not been for the heroic efforts of friends, relatives and strangers.
”A man kicked my back door in,” said Liddie Jemison, who lived on the second floor with her four children. ”He saved my life and my kids.”
Jemison and police said the man who saved her family is David Collins, 22. Several building residents credited the unemployed handyman with saving their lives.
”People call me a hero, but I`d rather they give me a job,” Collins said.
Collins was on his way to buy cigarettes for his aunt when he spotted the back porch in flames.
”I stopped the car in the middle of the street and ran into the building. I figured they might need help,” Collins said.
Collins said he entered the building through a side door, kicked in three doors on the first and second floors, and carried out one resident, an elderly man, on his shoulders.
”I could hear the children hollering on the third floor,” he said. ”I went back in, but I couldn`t make it up there. There was too much smoke, so I ran back out.
”I tried. I really did. There was just too much fire.”
A memorial service for the three children is scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday in the Dvorak school auditorium, 3615 W. 16th St.
Steven Pierson won the school`s science and art awards, Principal Smart said.
Linda Pierson was on the school`s perfect attendance honor roll in addition to being on the academic honor roll. And their brother, Joseph Lackland, was a superior student whose mind was at ease with numbers and words, while his hands favored basketballs.
Vickie Tharpe, a school-community representative, said that several people told her that Joseph had escaped the blaze into the third-floor hallway but returned to the apartment when he heard family members yelling for help.
The mother of the children, Valerie Foster, 29, who lives at 1509 S. Springfield Ave., said her children lived with her mother and stepfather in a third-floor rear apartment.
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Meanwhile, investigators continued to search for a definitive cause of the blaze. A report that a man was seen running from the scene with a gas can has been dismissed by police. Detectives also said in the last few days, residents complained about the smell of ”burning rubber.”
Fire Department officials said that the rapid spread of the flames, the empty gas container beneath the porch, and the burn patterns indicated that the fire was arson.
Willie Manuel, owner of the 1532 S. Lawndale property, said he inherited the building from his father, Jimmy Bounds, in 1983.
”The whole building was rewired in 1986,” he said.
Manuel said there was a ”small fire” in the building earlier this year but he never learned the cause. He said he had no insurance.
On Tuesday morning, survivors of the fire stood around the building stunned by the loss of life and property. The address, 1532, scrawled with white spray paint, still was visible over the front door.
Cella Robertson sat on the hood of a white station wagon in a lot next to his onetime home. A worn suitcase and a small duffel bag lay at his feet. He said the bags contained a couple of T-shirts ”and a few little odds and ends.”
”I`ve been down so long, this just feels like one more setback,”
Robertson said.
In the last few years, residents said, fires have destroyed a substantial portion of the block and other homes in the area.
”Every vacant lot you see was a fire,” said Lettie Holmes as she pointed to one such property. ”That one across the street was set. . . . The church that was down there, burnt. That one fenced in, that was a fire.
”This was once a very beautiful neighborhood,” Holmes added. ”The buildings were clean, kept up. You could sleep on the porch and look at the stars.”