Chicago police are investigating a fast-moving fire in a Chatham apartment building as an apparent case of arson, after a 50-year-old man was found dead Saturday morning.
The fire started shortly before 3 a.m. on the second floor of an apartment building at 83rd and Drexel, police and fire officials said.
A tenant who asked to be identified only as Theresa said she was in the middle of playing a game on her phone to relax before bed, when her cousin came in running.
“He’s banging on the bedroom door, ‘Get up! Get up!’” she said. Theresa said the fire spreading through the apartment building’s hallway was so bright, so ravenous, she didn’t even have to open the door to see it.
“I could see the flames from the peephole,” she said.
In the time it took to put on her boots, the flames had already gained ground, devouring their hallway, trapping them from leaving through the front door.