A Chicago firefighter died early Monday morning, after falling through an elevator shaft while battling a warehouse fire in the South Chicago neighborhood.
Crews were called to the scene in the 9200 block of South Baltimore Avenue for a fire in a vacant warehouse around 2:40 a.m., according to Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago.
When crews arrived, they discovered heavy smoke on the second floor, and as firefighters were searching for the source of the blaze, they noticed some holes in the floor, and put out an alert for crews to be careful, Santiago said. Firefighter/paramedic Daniel Capuano, 42, fell through an elevator shaft to the basement while searching, according to Santiago.
“It looks like the firefighter had just walked into the elevator shaft as he was searching, couldn’t see, and fell,” Santiago said. Crews quickly located Capuano, and put him in an ambulance to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, but he was pronounced dead at the hospital at 4:25 a.m.
Capuano, a 15-year veteran of the department, leaves behind a wife and three children, according to Santiago. Capuano also worked as a firefighter in Evergreen Park.