An 84-year-old woman died in a house fire in Logan Square early Saturday morning, police said on Mar. 23.
The incident raises concerns among neighbors about safety and preservation of historic homes in the area.
Police and firefighters responded to the blaze at around 1:36 a.m. at a home on the 2500 block of North Bernard Street, near West Altgeld Street. The Chicago Fire Department extinguished the fire and found Judith Harris, who lived in the home, unresponsive inside. She was taken to Stroger Hospital where she was pronounced dead. Police reported there were no other injuries or displacements as a result of the fire.
The Cook County Medical Examiner identified Harris as the victim. The cause of the fire is under investigation by the Chicago Fire Department. Neighbors said they did not know how it started but began mourning Harris over the weekend.
Ron Kaminecki, a neighbor, described waking up with his wife Sharon around 3 a.m., alerted by smoke and emergency lights outside their window. “The red lights in the street told most of us that something bad was up, and when we smelled smoke we knew something was very wrong,” Kaminecki wrote in an email to Block Club Chicago. “Sharon got dressed and went outside around 3 a.m. and the fire department was still pouring water through the windows.” He also noted that many houses nearby are preserved wood-frame homes dating back to when Kimball farm occupied much of Logan Square’s land.
“Most, if not all of us would hate to have it torn down since the neighborhood has a definite theme and historic setting,” Kaminecki said regarding concerns about possible demolition following such fires.
According to police and neighbors, other houses on North Bernard Street sustained minimal damage from this incident; remediation crews were seen working at Harris’s property later Saturday morning. Last month, two residential fires elsewhere in Logan Square displaced twenty-nine people within hours.
