Sept. 21--A 28-year-old woman died and a boy went into cardiac arrest after a suspicious fire started in the Far South Side's Roseland neighborhood early this morning, authorities said.
A firefighter also suffered minor lacerations battling the fire, which broke out shortly before 2 a.m. in a three-story brick building in the 11200 block of South Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive.
After finding an interior stairwell engulfed in flames, fire officials elevated the fire to a still-and-box alarm, District Chief Don Hroma said. Officials called an EMS Plan 1, bringing at least five ambulances to the scene. The fire was soon elevated to a 2-11 alarm.
During a search of the building, firefighters found the 28-year-old woman suffering from smoke inhalation. She was taken to Roseland Community Hospital, where she died, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
The boy, who is believed to be about 8 years old, sustained third-degree burns in the fire and was rushed in serious-to-critical to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, according a Chicago Fire Department spokesman. The boy had gone into cardiac arrest.
Fire department spokesman Larry Langford said the fire was determined to be "suspicious" and said the investigation has been turned over to the police.
Langford declined to go into detail about why foul play was suspected but said it was "based on evidence they found on the scene and the way the fire acted.''
The boy, whose prognosis is "poor,'' and the woman were inside an upper level apartment of the large courtyard style building when the blaze started in the stairwell, according to Langford.
It did not spread to any other apartments, said Langford.
The Chicago Police Department's arson unit is investigating.
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