WEST HUMBOLDT PARK — Neighbors are helping two housemates recover after a fire ravaged their West Humboldt Park home, killing one resident and several animals and leaving a dog abandoned.
The fire broke out Sunday morning in a two-story home in the 800 block of North St. Louis Avenue, authorities said. The fire started in the kitchen, and flames quickly spread through the first floor and up to the second floor, resident Darius Johnson told Block Club.
A 59-year-old man was hospitalized for smoke inhalation and two other housemates were displaced. Kyron McAllister, 59, died from his injuries over the weekend, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The fire also killed a cat, her babies and a guinea pig, but two turtles survived.
The fire destroyed the house, Johnson and housemate Ben Talley said. From high school diplomas and personal documents to clothes and books, nothing is salvageable, they said.
A GoFundMe for the housemates launched Thursday. Neighbors also have donated clothes, personal hygiene items, food and more.
In the meantime, neighbors and displaced residents want authorities to re-investigate how the fire started.
Talley and Johnson said it began a few hours after police served a former housemate with a restraining order and made him leave the house.
Fire Department spokesperson Larry Langford confirmed the fire was started by a person, but stopped short of calling it arson, saying the department typically does not rule a fire as arson “unless the scene is very obvious, such as a cocktail being thrown into a building, and the evidence is there.”
“We normally deal in the science of the fire investigation for ’cause and origin,’ and then we refer to the police if the evidence and interviews point to a possible criminal intent,” Langford said in an email.
Fire investigators turned over the information to police officials, who concluded the fire was accidental and closed the case, a department spokesperson said Wednesday.
‘It Was A Nightmare All Around’
The fire already had spread to the second floor by the time a loud beep from a fire alarm jolted Johnson awake, he said.
“I could not even make it to the light switch. … I could not breathe, so I opened the window, but there was smoke coming from the window,” Johnson said. “I jump out the window. No shoes, nothing — just socks and pajamas.”
There were flames on the ground and on the first floor, so Johnson climbed onto the roof, which was scalding hot, he said. He saw flames coming out of his room window. That’s when he decided to scoot along the pointed roof to get to the front of the house to get out — but he couldn’t make it and started screaming for help, he said.
“As soon as I screamed, there were a group of police already in the front of the house saying, ‘Hey, they’re on their way,'” Johnson said. “It was a nightmare all around.”
The 59-year-old resident, whose bedroom was on the first floor, tried to put out the fire but collapsed from smoke inhalation, the housemates said. Firefighters rescued him and took him to a local hospital, officials said.
The lead-up to the fire started a few hours earlier, Johnson and Talley said.
The fourth housemate had assaulted Talley twice Saturday — once with a machete — after an argument escalated, Talley said.
Talley locked himself in his bedroom and called police, he said. The housemate with the machete was trying to kick down the door, so Talley escaped out of his window, dropped his keys to responding officers and climbed down, he said.
“He was slowly destroying things in the building, but the machete incident was the same day,” Talley said. “I feel like I [was his] target.”
Responding officers said they could not arrest the housemate since it was a domestic incident and there was no evidence of physical harm, only property damage, Talley said.
Talley got an emergency order of protection against the housemate the same day and called the police again in the evening so they could serve the order to the housemate, he said.
About 9:30 p.m. Saturday, police again arrived at the home to serve the order of protection, which stated the fourth housemate needed to leave the home and could not live with Talley, he said. A police spokesperson confirmed a sergeant was called to the home to serve the order.
“The individual then left the area after being served the order of protection,” the spokesperson said.
Talley and Johnson said they saw the fourth housemate leave the area on his e-bike, but he left behind his two dogs and most of his belongings.
The fire broke out a few hours later, neighbors and police said.
A pile of old clothes and newspapers were seen inside the remnants of the house’s kitchen on Wednesday, where the fire began.
Displaced residents want the case reopened. Talley plans to file a complaint for assault and animal abandonment and get a permanent order of protection against the housemate, he said.
Block Club is not naming the person because he has not been charged with a crime.
‘Rebuilding Our Lives’
Talley, who was temporarily living a few blocks away because of the previous altercation with the ex-housemate, said he got several calls about the fire and came to the house about 1 a.m. to see it in flames. One of the housemate’s dogs, Onyx, was out in the yard but had suffered several burns, he said.
With no staff from Chicago Animal Control working at the time of the fire, Onyx was left outside tied to a pole for five hours amid the chaos, neighbors said.
Firefighters saw a second dog run out of the house, the housemates were told.
Neighbor Jiovani Lopez, whose house was also damaged from the fire and water, posted about Onyx on Facebook. Julie Darling — president of the West Loop Community Organization, who has a warehouse in Humboldt Park — saw the post and brought the dog to Border Tails Rescue in suburban Northbrook, she said.
Because he was considered abandoned, Onyx — who the rescue renamed Flames because there is already a dog named Onyx at the shelter — is considered a stray, Darling said.
After posting about the fire’s aftermath on social media, Darling received donations from people wanting to help Talley and Johnson, she said. She recently bought them new clothes and other essentials.
“What started with a dog tied to the fence on St. Louis has now become helping the victims of the fire,” Darling said. “I can’t imagine enduring what Ben and Darius are going through and [am] happy we were able to be of help.”
The pair are staying in the suburbs temporarily and hope to move back to the city soon — and adopt Onyx, Talley said. Vets are doing tests, but the dog seems to be in good spirits despite his recent trauma, according to a video shared by the rescue team on social media.
“If Onyx is going to survive, then we are going to try to take him in,” Talley said.
The pair is grateful for neighbors, friends and their landlord who have helped them with money, clothes and emotional support. Money raised from the GoFundMe will help them get more clothes, gift cards for groceries and get a new apartment, they said.
“I hope we can really start working on rebuilding our lives. … Right now, the main thing is clothes,” Johnson said.
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