Nearly two months after a fire at a Lincoln Park residential building left a Chicago firefighter dead and several individuals displaced, college students who lived at the location are calling on the property’s owners for help, NBC Chicago’s Regina Waldroup reports.
Nearly two months after a fire at a Lincoln Park residential building left a Chicago firefighter dead and several individuals displaced, college students who lived at the location are calling on the property's owners for help.
The blaze tore through a building near the intersection of Fullerton Avenue and Lincoln Avenue in Lincoln Park on the morning of Nov. 13 last year. Andrew Price, a Chicago firefighter, died in the line of duty while battling the blaze.
Price's sacrifice is not lost on the building's residents.
“It’s really sad to know that someone lost their life fighting for me, and to make sure I was okay,” said Sean Graney, a graduate student at Northwestern University.
Price's photo now hangs in a glass case at Lincoln Station Bar and Grill.
Graney lived in an apartment above the bar, and is now residing with a friend as him and other former residents have scrambled for solutions in the wake of the fire, with personal items destroyed and their home left uninhabitable.
Despite attempts to contact the owner of the building and their attorney, Graney has had no luck thus far.
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“Calls, emails, texts – no response,” he said. “We were just thrown to the side. At least temporarily relocate us for a week, two weeks, three weeks.”
The attorney for the building told NBC Chicago that it’s uninhabitable, so he his client couldn’t put tenants in other units.
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"This is a tragic situation, but the lease makes it very clear. The landlord is not the insurer of personal property. The client has done everything obligated under the lease," the attorney said.
Fire officials said that investigators believe the fire was caused by some rags used for cleaning that self-ignited in the bar.
