CHICAGO (WLS) — A man has been charged with arson and murder in connection with a West Side fire that killed a Chicago Fire Department captain on Wednesday.
On Friday, Chicago police confirmed that 44-year-old Charles Green, of Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, was taken into custody on Wednesday afternoon hours after the fire, though police have not said how they identified him as a suspect.
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Green has been charged with two counts of murder and one count of aggravated arson for allegedly lighting a fire in a trash bin that investigators say was the cause of the Austin garage fire that killed CFD Captain David Meyer earlier that morning, police said.
News of Green’s arrest comes after police confirmed that a person of interest was in custody on Thursday. Green lives just blocks from the scene of the fire.
Firefighters were called the fire at about 4:03 a.m. Wednesday in the 1200-block of Pine Avenue. The Office of Fire Investigations said the fire was started by someone intentionally igniting the contents of a trash bin.
The fire was out when part of the garage collapsed, critically-injuring Meyer. The 54-year-old later died at Stroger Hospital.
Meyer is being remembered as a hard working, decades-long public servant. The more than 28-year CFD veteran leaves behind a wife and four children.
Thursday was rough for the firefighters at Engine 96 Ladder 29, as those closest to Meyer spent part of the day at a procession that transferred Meyer’s body from the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office to a Northwest Side funeral home.
It was around midday Thursday when the ambulance carrying the remains of Meyer arrived in Norwood Park. Firefighters saluted his casket as it was taken into the funeral home where it will remain for now.
Also on Thursday, crews tore down the garage.
Resident Miriam Alonso shared cell phone video of Wednesday’s fire, which she said is just one in a series of dumpster fires that have been set on her block this year.
“It feels horrendous,” Alonso said. “There are no words for it.”
She was watching in horror as her family’s garage collapsed onto Meyer, shortly after a trash bin fire that spread into the garage was put out. She watched it happen.
“This is so traumatizing. I still have it in replay in my head like how it all happened,” Alonso said. “I hear them still screaming. I still see the smoke… Everything came down. And it hit him right here. All the bricks fell on top of him. We all witnessed that. And we saw everybody panic, ‘he’s down, he’s down.'”
Officials confirmed that so far this year, there have been at least five trash bin fires set a the stretch of West Crystal Street nearby. Two of them caused substantial structural damage after spreading onto nearby properties. Residents believe the same person is behind all of them.
“It’s not an accident,” Alonso said. “Like you’re lighting something on fire. Obviously you’re gong to catch something on fire, you know. Especially you’re doing a trash can. Like, it’s common sense.”
Public visitation for Captain Meyer will take place from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday at Malec and Sons Funeral Home in Norwood Park on Chicago’s Northwest Side.
The funeral service follows Tuesday at 10 a.m. at Saint John Brebeuf Church in Niles.
ABC7 is expecting to learn more on Saturday when Green will be scheduled to appear in court.
The video in the player above is from a previous report.
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