A Chicago firefighter died when he fell four stories through a skylight shaft of an apartment and restaurant building while battling a fire in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.
The firefighter was on the roof of the building, open holes to ventilate the fire, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The firefighter, 39-year-old Andrew Price, fell due to his vision becoming impaired from the smoke, according to the Sun-Times. He landed on the basement floor and firefighters had to cut a hole in a wall to get him to an ambulance. He was rushed to Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he died from his injuries from the fall.
The fire is believed to have started in a kitchen, though investigators aren’t sure yet whether it was a residential kitchen or the ground-floor restaurant. The building houses about 30 people and the Lincoln Station restaurant. The fire broke out about 5:30 am and residents were immediately evacuated. No one else was injured in the fire.
According to the Sun-Times, in 2017, the building’s owner with 16 code violations, and the city has sued the building’s owner three times since 2011 for maintenance issues and resident complaints.
Greg Zimmerman is senior contributing editor for FacilitiesNet.com and Building Operating Management magazine.
