Man, Woman, Child Killed in Ill. House Fire
Source St. Louis Post-Dispatch (TNS)
EAST ST. LOUIS -- Neighbors, including one watching football, another just home from church, jumped into action here early Sunday afternoon when smoke started pouring out of a home.
Joseph Redmond, 21, said he helped a woman and two small children, including a boy who was in bad shape, get out of the red, two-story frame house in the 2000 block of North 43rd Street.
“He had black all over his nose, and he kept coughing like he was going to throw up,” Redmond said.
He said the woman yelled that there were more people trapped inside.
“I wanted to go back, but the smoke was too thick,” Redmond said.
East St. Louis firefighters arrived about 1:30 p.m. to heavy smoke and flames and attacked the fire, according to East St. Louis Fire Chief Jason Blackmon. After it was extinguished, firefighters found the bodies of a man and a woman in a bedroom and a boy in the living room.
He identified the adults as Kendra Williams and Chantez Reynolds. The boy was Jayden Harris. Blackmon did not have their ages.
Heavy fire was discovered in the kitchen and front room of the house when firefighters arrived, Blackmon said. It took about an hour to extinguish the flames. The cause of the fire is being investigated by the Illinois State Fire Marshal’s Office.
Blackmon said there were many people outside the home, but he did not know how many other people may have escaped the fire before the arrival of firefighters. He said about seven people had lived in the home.
John Potts, 46, a neighbor, said he tried to break through a side window to help. The smoke was too thick to get in.
He said the house was fully engulfed in flames by the time the fire department showed up.
“It was a sad day to see something like that, trying to help and you can’t help,” Potts said, weighing the experience several hours later. “It was helpless.”
Mary McCallister, who lives a car-length away from the home, described her neighbors as considerate people.
“If they saw something that didn’t look right, they let us know,” said McCallister, a welder for American Steel.
She said the woman who died was recently excited about finding out she was pregnant with a baby girl. Her boyfriend also died in the fire.
“They need prayers and lots of donations,” she said of the survivors.
Jesse Bogan • 314-340-8255
@jessebogan on Twitter
Denise Hollinshed • 314-340-8319
@Hollinshed57 on Twitter
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