Mother and daughter escape fire at their East St. Louis home

A woman in a wheelchair and her daughter escaped unharmed when a fire at a vacant house next door spread to their East St. Louis home Friday morning.

The daughter was awakened by a smoke alarm at their home in the 500 block of North 22nd Street, said East St. Louis Fire Chief Derrick Burns. As she was going downstairs, she saw fire on the front side of her house, the chief said.

Her immediate concern was to get her 75-year-old mother out of the house, Burns said.

The fire department assisted the family.

Both made it out safely, Burns said.

The fire was reported to the East St. Louis Fire Department at 4:40 a.m.

“It was under control in about an hour,” Burns said. “But, it was difficult because it was a balloon construction house. Fire was shooting out the walls to the attic … and through the roof,” Burns said.

The vacant two-story, wood-framed structure where the fire started is at 547 N. 22nd Street.

“It was simply too much fire to keep it from transferring to the house next to it,” Burns said.

There were no injuries to anyone, including firefighters, he said.

The Friday fire is being investigated as suspicious because nearby, on North 23rd Street, there was a fire between two vehicles reported at 8:47p.m. Thursday. After the fire was out, a second fire at the same location was reported around 10 p.m.

Burns was in the process of notifying Police Chief Kendall Perry about the Friday morning fire and requesting his help in the investigation.

“Someone may be out there setting these fires,” Burns said. “We need to investigate this. It just seems suspicious to me.”

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This story was originally published November 17, 2023 at 1:35 PM.