2 people hospitalized, in critical condition after Uptown high rise fire

CHICAGO - Firefighters are investigating how a fire broke out on the fourth floor of a senior living high rise in Uptown on Tuesday night.  

The fire happened just after 5 p.m. Tuesday in the 4600 block of N. Sheridan and was fortunately contained to a single unit. 

Three residents on the fourth floor were transported to the hospital – two of them are in serious condition. 

"It didn't look good," said Verneist Taylor, a caregiver who evacuated down a stairwell from the seventh floor. "They were resuscitating her. She wasn't breathing."

Shortly after 5 p.m., Taylor said she saw and smelled smoke during a client's visit to the 27-story high rise. 

"I went down the stairs and I saw them resuscitating a lady on the fourth floor," she said.

Menzola Burford was visiting her mother, who lives on the eighth floor.  

"I opened the door and the whole hallway was full of smoke and it scared me. The fireman said, 'get back inside! Close the door!'" Burford said.

The fire had broken out in a fourth floor unit. Three of its occupants were transported to local hospitals. They are believed to have suffered from smoke inhalation.

"The fire now is completely out," said District Commander Shaun Haynes, shortly after 6:30 p.m. "We've done a top-to-bottom stairwell search. This is a sprinkled building. The sprinkler system did aid in our fire attack."

Fortunately, responding firefighters and those sprinklers were able to contain the fire to a single unit.

"Our first arriving units on scene did an outstanding job containing and extinguishing the fire as quickly as possible," said Haynes.

Haynes said all remaining occupants were accounted for Tuesday night. 

Other than the unit where this broke out, no other residents had been displaced, CFD officials said.