Fire kills 1 in Chatham

CHICAGO (SUN TIMES MEDIA WIRE) - One person is dead after a residential fire Monday in Chatham on the South Side.

The Chicago Fire Department arrived about 11:30 p.m. to the 7800 block of South Rhodes Avenue, where they found a 1.5-story, single-family home on fire, Chicago police and the fire department said.

Rawlin Brown, 50, was removed from the house and taken to University of Chicago Medical Center where he was pronounced dead, police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. The fire was struck out just before midnight according to the fire department.

An autopsy released Tuesday found that Brown died from inhalation of smoke in the house fire, the medical examiner’s office said. His death was ruled accidental.

No one else was injured in the blaze, the fire department said. The cause of the fire and the extent of the damage are still being investigated.