March 13--A 3-year-old girl died in a Rogers Park apartment fire Wednesday afternoon after the girl set fire to a mattress in her family's apartment, family members said.
The girl, identified by family as LeAndrea White was found dead in the fire in a building in the 1700 block of West Juneway Terrace that started about 2:20 p.m., said police and fire officials.
LaSheena Weekly, the girl's mother, said that she had repeatedly admonished LeAndrea, who with her fraternal twin was the youngest of Weekly's eight children, not to play with lighters.
"She was beautiful. She was smart. She could dance. She would console her (fraternal twin) every time she cried," Weekly said. "They stuck together so much. They were (born) a minute apart."
The fire was contained to the third-floor apartment where it started, and declared under control just before 3 p.m. The girl's mother declined to be taken to the hospital, as did a child, but two others were taken in fair-to-serious condition to Presence St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, said Assistant Deputy Fire Cmsr. Mark Nielsen. Officials said those taken to the hospital were adults.
The room where the fire started had been cleared of all furniture except the mattress, which was leaning against the wall, because the family had been fighting an outbreak of bedbugs, Weekly said.
Weekly learned of the fire when LeAndrea's sister ran in to tell her that LeAndrea had lit the mattress on fire, Weekly said. She went into the room and looked for LeAndrea.
"When I tried to lift that mattress up, I would have seen her," Weekly said. "I would have seen my daughter, under the mattress. I don't think she was in that room."
"She said the baby probably went to hide in a closet somewhere," family friend Schona Buranda said. "And that's how she ended up losing her."
Weekly then assumed that LeAndrea had left the room, and tried to thow the mattress out the window, but breaking open the windows just caused the flames to spread, so she left the room and ran to get neighbors' help, she and family members said. Weekly and the neighbor tried to put the fire out with fire extinguisher, but they could not douse the flames.
An older daughter and a grandchild of LaSheena Weekly's were also in another room in the apartment at the time of the fire, and were able to escape, Buranda said.
When they couldn't put out the fire, they had to leave the apartment, and Weekly said because the apartment door was open, she thought LeAndrea had been able to escape.
When firefighters arrived at the three-story multi-unit apartment building, they found a third-floor apartment "heavily engulfed" in flames, and several people, including those who had been injured, who had been able to escape the building, Nielsen said.
In their search of the apartment, firefighters found the girl in a bedroom that's believed to have been where the fire originated, Nielsen said. Fire and police officials said an exact cause for the fire had not yet been determined, but it appears to be accidental. The fire was largely contained to the room where it started, with smoke in another room, Langford said.
There were no smoke detectors in the apartment, Nielsen said.
Fire commanders called an Emergency Medical Services Plan 1, which calls at least six ambulances to the scene, for the fire, Langford said.
Red Cross officials were assisting with shelter for those displaced by the fire.
Family friend Buranda said that the loss of LaSheena Weekly's daughter is "unreal to her."
"She's just about to lose her mind."
Vaddie Weekly, the girl's aunt,. said LeAndrea loved to play with cell phones and take pictures. Tuesday night, the girl refused to go to sleep until her mother took a photo of her, which she did, and posted on Instagram at 3 a.m., both LaSheena and Vaddie Weekly said.
"This is the last picture of her that I took on my phone," LaSheena Weekly said, crying and shaking.
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