Six children die in flat blaze

Fire swept through a third-floor apartment in Chicago earlier today, killing six children and injuring their mother and three siblings, authorities said.

Candles may have caused the fire, officials said.

Fire Commissioner Raymond Orozco confirmed reports from neighbours that the family had been without electricity for at least a month and had been relying on candles for light.

“What do you say?” Orozco said. “There’s nothing you can say. It’s been the worst in a long time. The only thing you can do is just pray for these poor people.”

The three-bedroom apartment in the Rogers Park neighbourhood on Chicago’s North Side had no smoke detectors, he said.

The fire broke out at about 12.20am (5.20am Irish Time) on the third floor of a large apartment building, Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said.

A passer-by noticed smoke coming out of the apartment window and called the Fire Department, said Cmdr Will Knight.

“Then the mother came running out with one child in her arms, screaming to the neighbours that there were other children inside,” Knight said. “They asked her how many, and she said eight.”

A neighbourhood man rescued one child after running up three flights of stairs and bursting into the apartment, witnesses said.

When firefighters arrived, they saw a child at a third-floor window, Langford said. That child was rescued by ladder.

Other firefighters went up the stairwell and found children huddled in the apartment’s front room, not far from where the fire is believed to have started, Langford said.

Five of the dead were identified by the Cook County medical examiner’s office as Natalie Ramirez, 16; Eric Ramirez, 12; Suzette Ramirez, 10; Idaly Ramirez, six; and Kevin Ramirez, three. Another girl remained unidentified.

Firefighters tried to resuscitate the victims on the street, then took them to hospitals.

The mother and one child were in stable condition at the same hospital, a nursing supervisor said.

Another child was dead on arrival at a different hospital, and a third child taken to that hospital died shortly after being transferred to the University of Chicago Hospital, officials said.