With smoke from a smoldering mattress growing thicker in the small, cluttered apartment, two small children took refuge on a mattress in the bedroom, two others cowered behind a couch, and another was nearby on the floor.
Their only path out was blocked by a heavy dresser pulled in front of the doorway.
With no adult around and no smoke detectors to alert neighbors, the five children–each under 6 years old–were unable to escape the smoke and were killed Sunday night by a fire so small it did little damage to the apartment.
On Monday, police charged the children’s father, Antoine Lee, 28, with five misdemeanor counts of child endangerment after he told authorities that he left the children alone for just a few minutes to run out for cigarettes.
But fire investigators disputed that assertion. They said an analysis of the mattress showed smoke had been accumulating in the Near West Side apartment for at least half an hour.
Fire officials said someone had barricaded the children inside the apartment by placing a large piece of furniture in a doorway.
“This is not much of a fire; the loss of life is just unnecessary and tragic,” Fire Commissioner James Joyce said Monday. “It was really a sad scene and it’s clearly a case of negligence.”
The incident began about 9 p.m. Sunday when neighbors on the first floor of the two-story brick apartment building at 1521 W. Hastings St. smelled smoke for about 10 or 15 minutes and called firefighters. The children’s mother, LaTonya Anderson, was at work at a nearby Kmart, authorities said.
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When firefighters arrived, they found smoke filling the apartment and three of the children dead from smoke inhalation, authorities said. Two other children died later at area hospitals.
The children’s grandmother, Gail Anderson, identified the children as Patrick Lee, 1; LaShawn Lee, 3; Tonia Anderson, 4; Dominique Wyma, 4; and Demetri Wyma, 5.
The smoke came from a mattress and hardwood floor in the main room that began burning, ignited accidentally by a gas space heater, a Chicago Fire Department spokeswoman said.
Doorway was blocked
A large piece of furniture had been placed in the doorway leading to the living room, apparently so the children could not leave the apartment while Lee was away, the spokeswoman said.
“What the intention was behind that, I can’t explain,” Fire Department spokeswoman Molly Sullivan said. “It appeared it was placed there so the children would not leave the front room. So when the mattress caught fire, the children were clearly trapped and had no way out.”
Lee arrived home as firefighters were dousing the fire and he was taken into custody. He was released Monday morning after being charged with the five misdemeanors, one for the loss of each child’s life.
Additional charges could be filed, but unless new evidence is offered by investigators, “it’s pretty much done,” Chicago Police Detective Mark Vail said.
Authorities could not clarify details about the family, including the relationship between Lee and Anderson and Lee and the children.
Gail Anderson, grandmother of three of the children, said her daughter and Lee had three children together: Tonia, LaShawn and Patrick. She said Dominique and Demetri were Lee’s children from a previous relationship.
On Monday, Erica Wyma, mother of Dominique and Demetri, said she was in shock and pain.
“There’s no way I can bring them back,” she said. “There’s nothing I can do.”
In 1998, Wyma lost her job and her apartment. Fearing she would lose her children to the state, she said she turned them over to their father, Lee, until she could get back on her feet. She said she thought the separation would be temporary, maybe six months.
On Monday, Wyma saw her children for the first time in three years when she identified their bodies at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“After three years, I had to see my kids in a morgue,” Wyma said.
A photo on the coffee table at a home belonging to Wyma’s aunt and cousin showed Demetri and Dominique sitting on the kitchen floor, grinning over large plastic buckets full of pastel Easter candies and toys. It is the last photo Wyma had of the two children, taken by her mother a month after the children went to Lee.
John Anderson, LaTonya Anderson’s cousin, said he was devastated when he heard about the deaths. He said Lee, a day laborer, is usually a responsible father, but he erred if he left his children alone.
“You don’t leave little kids alone like that,” John Anderson said.
Lee could not be reached for comment.
Building in disrepair
After the fire, city building inspectors swarmed around the apartment building, searching for code violations. The apartment suffered mostly smoke and water damage.
In the shadow of the high-rise ABLA Homes, the dilapidated, two-story building sits next to the Holy Covenant Church. Between the house and western neighbor the First Reformed Church is fenced-in yard littered with old appliances, broken toys and about a dozen automobiles with broken windshields, dented doors and rust.
As for the apartment, Fire Commissioner Joyce said, “The living conditions were horrible.”
Firefighters found the small living room cluttered with two or three televisions, clothing, two refrigerators and mattresses sprawled on the floor, Joyce said.
In March 1998, the building’s owner, the Holy Covenant Church, was charged with 10 building code violations, according to Housing Court records. The violations included a decrepit porch system, peeling paint, chimney collapse, broken windowpanes, refuse and debris in the back and lack of gutters and downspouts.
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The violations later were dismissed, said Buildings Department spokeswoman Kristen Cabanban, although she said records are unclear why they were dismissed.
A complaint also was lodged last June, and the department filed a notice with the church to make arrangements for an inspection. But the church never made the arrangements, and the department did not follow up. Cabanban did not know why the city didn’t follow up.
Cabanban said the city would immediately inspect several buildings owned by the church, whose pastor is Titus Anderson, LaTonya Anderson’s father, family members said.