CHICAGO, Illinois — Four members of one family — a 69-year-old woman, a 46-year-old woman, a 22-year-old man and a 13-year-old boy — were killed in the early hours of Thursday, November 5, when a fire swept through their two-storey townhome at 7049 North Paulina Street in Chicago's Rogers Park neighbourhood, Chicago police and the Chicago Fire Department said. The family's dog was also killed.

Source: The Loyola Phoenix

Police found the four people unresponsive at around 4:15 a.m., according to a Chicago police spokesperson cited by The Loyola Phoenix, the student newspaper of Loyola University Chicago. The family was transported to area hospitals and pronounced dead shortly after, police said. ABC 7 Chicago (WLS) reported that the fire broke out at about 4:14 a.m. in a townhome in the 7000 block of North Paulina Avenue, and that two male and two female victims were taken from the home.

Source: ABC 7 Chicago (WLS) via EIN Illinois Newswire

Contained to one unit — three neighbours displaced

The townhome is one unit in a four-unit building near Paulina Street and Greenleaf Avenue on the city's North Side. Reports summarising fire-department information say the flames were contained to the family's single unit and were brought under control by about 4:37 a.m., with firewalls credited for stopping the blaze spreading to the adjoining homes. Three residents from the neighbouring units were displaced. Heavy damage to the family's unit was visible in photographs from the scene.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office had not released the victims' identities in the reports available for this story, and this report follows that position: the 13-year-old is described by age and neighbourhood only. Neighbours told Chicago outlets the four were a grandmother, a mother and her two sons, and that they were longtime, active members of the North Side community.

'An unimaginable tragedy' — the ward alderwoman responds

Alderwoman Maria Hadden, who represents the 49th Ward, which includes Rogers Park, wrote in an Instagram post on November 5: “This is an unimaginable tragedy with large impacts for the people of our community. My condolences go to the family and neighbors.” Hadden told the Chicago Sun-Times that the 13-year-old boy was a student at Kilmer International Academy, the neighbourhood school — a detail that means the loss will be felt directly in a local classroom as well as on the block.

Chicago Fire Department spokesperson Larry Merritt said the cause of the fire is under investigation, according to reports summarising the department's statements. Police said no foul play is suspected. No official has announced any suspected cause — no appliance, heating fault or other origin has been confirmed — and this report does not speculate about one.

A North Side neighbourhood in mourning

Rogers Park is one of Chicago's most diverse neighbourhoods, at the far north edge of the city along Lake Michigan, home to Loyola University Chicago and to long-established immigrant communities — including South Asian and Punjabi families among the many communities along and around Devon Avenue to the south of the ward. A fire that kills four generations-spanning members of one household — a grandmother, a mother and two sons, the youngest a schoolboy — is the kind of loss that lands on an entire block: neighbours described hearing the emergency response in the early hours and gathering outside as firefighters worked.

Fire-safety officials in Chicago routinely remind residents after fatal home fires of the same basics — working smoke alarms on every level and outside sleeping areas, a practised escape plan, and extra care with heating equipment as November cold arrives in the city. Officials have not linked any of those factors to this fire; they are listed here as the standing public guidance the fire department repeats after incidents of this kind, not as findings in this case.

What happens next

The Chicago Fire Department's investigation into the cause continues, and the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office is expected to release the victims' identities once family notification is complete. Kilmer International Academy and Chicago Public Schools typically make grief support available to students and staff after the death of a student, and Alderwoman Hadden's ward office is the local point of contact for neighbours who were displaced. Awaaz Punjab will update this story when the medical examiner releases names or investigators announce a cause.