Two children and two adults are dead after a fire set a West Englewood house ablaze in the predawn hours Wednesday morning.
Chicago police said the fire broke out just before 2 a.m. Wednesday at a residence in the 6200 block of South Paulina Street.
An 8-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy were pronounced dead at Comer Children’s Hospital, police said. Two adults, one man and one woman, were transported to the University of Chicago Medicine with severe burns and were later pronounced dead. One of the adults was identified as Reginald Lee Wilson, 57, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Autopsies are scheduled for Thursday.
The remaining two boys, ages 14 and 16, are in stable condition at Comer. Authorities did not provide the relationships among the victims.
Cadarius Wilson, 24, said he was the first to see the Englewood house ablaze. He was in the area to visit a friend early Wednesday, which he said led him to be at the “right time, right place.”
Wilson called 911 as he tried to alert the residents inside of the danger. He was unable to get into the home because of a locked gate, but yelled outside the home to try to alert residents and neighbors of the fire.
“There really wasn’t nobody at all on the block,” Wilson said. “The only thing I heard on the block was dogs barking.”
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He said he rescued two teenage boys from the burning Paulina Street home by catching them as they jumped out the window.
“I told them I am not going anywhere. Y’all can jump,” Wilson said. “I am right here to catch y’all. I am not going to leave.”
Once the brothers were safe, Wilson said he stayed with them, kept them calm, reassured them, and reminded them to keep breathing. The two brothers were taken to the hospital, along with the four others.
“I wouldn’t want no one to leave me,” Wilson said. “I would want someone to stay and help me, so that’s exactly what I did.”
Despite his selfless decision to stay, Wilson does not consider himself a hero, but as a “regular person” who was “always taught to love.”
“If I were, if that were the case, everyone would be alive right now. I was only there doing what I can and I’m grateful for the things I was able to do while I was there,” Wilson said.
Fire officials and Wentworth Area (Area 1) detectives are investigating the cause of the fatal fire, which is currently classified as an arson investigation.