Five children from same family die in overnight East St. Louis apartment fire
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Five children die in East St. Louis apartment fire
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Five children were killed in an overnight fire in East St. Louis Friday.
Assistant Fire Chief George McClellan said the children were alone in the apartment in the 500 block of 29th Street at the time of the fire. Their mother had left briefly to pick up her boyfriend from work.
She reported the fire about 3:45 a.m. while entering the building numerous times, dressed in a house coat and sandals, in an attempt to rescue the children, who were all between the ages of 2 and 9 years old.
McClellan said when fire crews arrived, they encountered heavy fire in the living room area of the apartment.
“Two teams went up there. One was a search team, trying to find people, and one to suppress the fire,” he said. “They found two children in the living room area heavily burned and they were under debris. Three were in the kitchen area. They took one to the hospital and the other two died in the ambulance.”
St. Clair County Coroner Calvin Dye Sr. confirmed the other child died in an area hospital.
The fire started in the living room area, but a cause has not been determined. The Illinois State Fire Marshal is investigating. It took about 30 or 35 minutes to extinguish the fire, McClellan said.
None of the other tenants were at home at the time of the fire. The mother was not injured.
“I see bodies all the time, but when it’s kids, kids are different,” said McClellan, who also is a nurse. “You do whatever you can to try to save them. I thought we had the other three. I thought they had pulses.”
This story was originally published August 6, 2021 at 7:11 AM.
