The fire spread quickly from a second-floor unit in the troubled Roseland apartment building, down a hallway and then up a stairwell to the third floor. By then, the screams of residents and barking dogs had broken the early morning quiet Monday, but the flames were already at the Coleman family’s door.
When someone inside the apartment, who had apparently been alerted to the fire, opened the front door, flames raced into the living room, trapping Shamaya Coleman, her boyfriend and Coleman’s four children, according to Larry Langford, a spokesman for the Chicago Fire Department.
Although Coleman and her boyfriend were able to jump to safety from a window, the children all died in a bedroom. Firefighters later found the oldest child, Carliysia Clark, 16, in an alcove, apparently trying to shield a sibling.
Langford said there did not appear to be working smoke detectors in the second-floor apartment where the fire is believed to have started or in the Coleman’s third-floor unit. But fire officials could not say whether any of the code violations played a role in the deaths at the building in the 11200 block of South Vernon Avenue. The investigation was continuing, Langford said.
Fire investigators could not determine if Tahir Sheikh, who has owned the building in the Far South Side’s Roseland neighborhood since September 2013, had installed the required smoke detectors or if they were destroyed in the fire. It is an owner’s responsibility to install smoke detectors or replace broken detectors, Langford said, while it is the tenant’s responsibility to make sure they have working batteries.
Sheikh, a doctor who directs a practice focused on psychiatry, could not be reached for comment.
“With more warning, even if they had a minute more warning, that could have made a difference,” Langford said. He added that the open front door allowed the flames to “engulf the living room in a very short time and cut off any possibility of escape from the back door.”
The 18-unit apartment building had failed 23 of its 37 inspections in the last nine years, including its most recent inspection on June 9 for municipal code violations that included failure to install and maintain smoke detectors.
“We have had numerous contacts with this property,” said Mimi Simon, a spokeswoman for the city’s Buildings Department. “It has a history of complaints.”
Chicago Law Department spokesman John Holden said the city had planned to file a case against Sheikh following the most recent inspection, but had not yet. An emergency housing court hearing has been requested for Tuesday afternoon.
“What was found in the June inspection and in (Monday’s) inspection will all be addressed at the hearing on Tuesday,” Holden said.
More Top Picks Samsung Hw K450 2 1 Channel
Fire Department investigators believe the fire started at 3:25 a.m. Monday from an open flame in the living room of a second-floor unit that was open when firefighters arrived. The unit was unoccupied, Langford said.
“An open fire started it. Who provided the open flame, we don’t know,” Langford said. “Nor do we know if it was intentional or accidental, but there is no further evidence to point to that it was intentional.”
There was a working fire detector in the second-floor hallway, Langford said. But for many tenants, the first sign of danger was a neighbor banging on their doors and yelling, “There’s a fire!” Others were awakened by the barking of their dogs. By the time they rushed out of the apartment building, flames were shooting out of the upper-floor windows and shards of glass were falling to the ground.
There was a backdoor in the family’s apartment, but Langford said the family could not reach it after the fire spread into the living room.
Witnesses said they saw a woman, believed to be Coleman, screaming and apparently trying to find her children, before finally jumping from the third floor. A man believed to be her boyfriend, who family members identified as Nate Johnson, jumped next.
When firefighters pulled up to the building Coleman screamed to them that her children were still in the apartment. The firefighters went up the burning stairs and found her children dead in the bedroom.
The family identified the other children as Eriana Smith, 7, Shamarion Clark, 12, and Carlvon Clark, 13.
Coleman and Johnson were expected to survive their jump from the third floor. They were taken in critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. Johnson was later transferred to Loyola University Medical Center with injuries caused by inhaling superheated air, authorities said.
Hours after the fire, relatives of the victims gathered to pray at Christ Medical Center.
“It’s been a traumatizing event for everybody involved,” said Coleman’s sister, Monica Coleman. “I’m just asking the public to pray for our family. My sister has lost four of her children. And we just need prayer.”
Calvin Clark, who is the uncle of the children, added: “They were great kids and they will be missed.”
Clark said Carliysia was an honor student at Phillips High School. Carlvon was an eighth-grader who was accepted to a military high school and had his heart set on attending. Shamarion loved dancing.
“The other baby was just a sweetheart,” he said.
On Monday night, more than 300 residents gathered on South Vernon to mourn the deaths of the children and show their support of the family. When Carl Clark, the biological father of the three oldest children, arrived, he was embraced by his friends and members of the clergy.
“I’m gonna miss my babies,” he said in a voice choked with emotion. “I called my babies last night before I went to bed to make sure they was all right. I’m gonna miss my babies. That’s all I can say. I love my babies.”
Eric Patton Smith was the father of the youngest child who perished in the fire, Eriana.
“She was a charismatic 7-year-old,” he said. “She was always singing, very proper, very mannerable. That’s why she was loved by so many.”
A majority of failed inspections at the building took place under the previous owner, Manohar Lal, who sold the building in 2013 after owning it for about 25 years, according to records.
“There was ongoing maintenance,” he said. “Repairs were made, and once those repairs were made, more repairs would come up. We kept on repairing.”
The city of Chicago filed suit against Sheikh on Jan. 9 for violations including failure to adequately heat the building during the winter, install and maintain smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors, and supply adequate hot and cold water.
As part of the case, exterior and interior inspections were ordered. The case was dismissed in February after Judge Pamela Hughes Gillespie found the building to be in full compliance.
The Buildings Department was back the next month, however, on another heating complaint before finding more violations in June, Simon said.
Tribune reporter Carlos Sadovi contributed.
More Top Picks Best Noise Canceling Headphones For Students