‘Prayer warrior,’ 94, among three dead in East St. Louis house fire
Three people trapped inside of a house when fire broke out Friday morning are confirmed dead, according to East St. Louis Fire Department Assistant Chief Ed Wayne.
Firefighters were dispatched to 3316 Bond Ave. at 6:58 a.m. Friday. It took about two and a half hours to control the fire and extinguish hotspots, Wayne said.
St. Clair County Coroner Calvin Dye Sr. identified the three victims as Sylvester Reeves, 94, her son, Pierre Manley Sr., 56, and Cheryle M. Johnson, 59. Dye said the three died from smoke inhalation and were pronounced dead at the scene.
All three were residents of the home.
Wayne said firefighters arrived to find the two-story wooden house engulfed in smoke with flames shooting from the back and front of the house near the roof.
“It took a heavy hit upstairs,” Wayne said. “The elderly lady was in the front room upstairs and the others were in the back rooms upstairs.”
About 50 residents of the neighborhood, family members and friends gathered near the two-story home as first responders extinguished the last of the flames then prepare the bodies of the victims to be moved. A coroner’s investigator met with members of the victims’ family.
Mercedes Reeves, 30, of Belleville said Sylvester Reeves was her great-grandmother.
“She was the most delightful, peaceful, sweet woman,” Mercedes Reeves said. “She was a God-fearing woman, a prayer warrior.”
Whenever family members stopped by her house, Sylvester Reeves would cook dinner and “show us love.”
“No matter how much time went by, she always remembered her girls and her grandbabies. All of us,” Mercedes Reeves said. “She was a mother, a wife, a sister. She was everything.”
Dwight Harris of Collinsville is a grandson of Sylvester Reeves.
Harris said his grandmother lived in the two-story home on Bond Avenue for over 70 years and that he had lived there for 27 years before he got married.
He said she had two jobs for a long time: She worked for Bi-State Development as a bus driver from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. and then went to a second job as an office worker for a dentist in St. Louis from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Harris said his grandmother loved everyone she met, “No matter who you were…no matter what you did in life. She was a good-hearted person.”
Alexus Caradine, 32, of Cahokia Heights described her favorite memory of her great-grandmother: Going to her house when she cooked dinners for the family after church on Sundays.
The Illinois State Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the origin of the fire.
This story was originally published August 29, 2025 at 12:36 PM.