A Chicago firefighter sustained injuries following a floor collapse inside a Rogers Park apartment building on Monday, as reported by WLS.
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The incident occurred around 11:30 a.m. on West North Shore Avenue, according to the Chicago Fire Department (CFD).
“One of our firefighters fell through the floor,” stated CFD Deputy District Chief Kelly Burns. “He was swiftly rescued by members of squad two, one of our city’s heavy rescue teams. They successfully brought him out from the basement in under a minute.”
The injured firefighter was transported to Stroger Hospital and is currently in serious condition.
The affected structure is an eight-unit building, featuring three floors and a basement, located on West North Avenue.
“What appeared to be a small fire at the back turned out to involve a significant volume of flames, extending throughout the entire height of the building,” Burns explained.
Witness Eric Newswanger said he was on a call with a co-worker when he smelled the smoke in his building a block away from the fire.
“These are big apartments, there’s a lot of people inside,” Newswanger said. “There’s definitely the firefighters themselves just hoping everyone’s okay.”
Chicago Fire says seven people who live in the building were displaced but they were all able to get out and no one inside was hurt aside from one of the responding firefighters.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, but fire crews do believe the fire originated somewhere in the back of the building.
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