A 3-year-old boy and 2-year-old girl died this morning after they and two other children were left home alone in the Englewood neighborhood, officials say. (Posted Dec. 22nd, 2012)
Hours before a fire swept through their bedroom, killing their younger sister and cousin, Darnell and Marquis were watching Batman cartoons as their mother and aunt were dressing for a night out, the boys said in an interview.
But in the middle of the night, before the two adults returned home to check on the four children, a hot plate being used to heat the room fell onto some clothes, igniting a fire, the boys and authorities said.
Darnell, 7, and Marquis, 4, managed to run out a back door with the help of their aunt to escape the fire in their West Englewood home, they said.
But a 2-year-old boy, identified at the Cook County medical examiner’s office as Javaris Meakens, and a 3-year-old girl, Jariyah Meakens, perished in the blaze that was contained in a bedroom of the house.
“When the fire started, everything shut off,” said Darnell, who said it was his sister and cousin who were left in the house. “Auntie came to get us. When (she) saw the fire, she called all our names. When I opened the door, she told me, ‘Come on, the fire’s getting closer.’”
On Saturday, the children’s mothers were being questioned by Chicago police, but no charges had been filed. The two surviving children told authorities they were left alone in the house when the fire broke out.
The children were interviewed as they sat with four adult women. Because their parents have not been charged, police would not release the names of the children’s mothers.
The fire occurred about 3:30 a.m. in the 6400 block of South Paulina Street, officials said.
When firefighters arrived, there were flames shooting out of the middle bedroom, and smoke throughout the first floor apartment, said James Mungovan, the Deputy District Chief for District 5 with the Chicago Fire Department.
At first, firemen concentrated on getting water to the blaze, Mungovan said. Once the fire was extinguished, they learned the two children did not survive, he said.
“We got here in a timely matter. We got water on the fire and we made our searches, which revealed two deceased people,” he said. “The fire had advanced to the stage where it was open, free-burning.”
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, Mungovan said.
But authorities are looking closely at the hot plate that was found in the bedroom, said Larry Langford, a spokesman for the Fire Department.
“There is no official cause yet,” Langford said. “We did not find one working smoke detector in that building.”
On Saturday morning, a crew of firemen went door to door on the block offering free smoke detectors to neighbors and talking to them about fire safety.
Ald. Toni Foulkes, 15th, said she arrived to the house about an hour after the fire was reported.
Officials from the Fire Department told her the blaze apparently was started by a hot plate that was being used to heat a bedroom, she said.
“This was senseless,” Foulkes said, shaking her head as she stood outside the two-story grey-stone building. “The oldest (boy), he was just terrified. It bothers me.”
Earlier that morning, as firefighters battled the blaze, neighbors Michelle Washington and Tiffany Williams saw the two boys standing outside without coats and shoes, they said.
They invited the boys into their home to keep warm.
Darnell and Marquis told the women their mother and aunt went to a party at the “haunted house” and told them to go to sleep, Washington said. When the boys woke up, they saw the fire and smoke.
“They looked shaken and scared,” Washington said.
It was at Washington's home that investigators from the Bomb and Arson unit and the Office of Fire Investigations interviewed the boys, the women said.
The children were later taken into protective custody by the Department of Children and Family Services.
News of the younger children’s deaths shook up the West Englewood block and riled up neighbors, who said they often saw Darnell walking home alone from school.
Some neighbors said there was no gas service at the house, which is why the family was using the hot plate to keep warm.
The family had lived on the block for about a year and a half, said neighbor Ken Allison. Neighbors often saw the women with their children, he said, but they were not well known.
“There’s no way they should have left those kids alone,” he said, his voice rising with indignation. “There’s no room to half-step as a parent. There’s too much going on.”
When firefighters arrived around 3:30 a.m., they weren't able to get into the home because of intense heat and fire, a Chicago Fire Department official said. Fire was heavy throughout the basement and first floor, he said.
Firefighters cut through burglar bars on the windows, he said.
Firefighters eventually found the two children cuddled up in a bed, fire officials said at a news conference.
The basement windows were all shattered. A white Christmas tree, smudged with smoke, stood near a front room window.
A neighbor told an investigator that the second-floor tenants recently moved out of the brick and stone two-flat.
pnickeas@tribune.com
Twitter: @PeterNickeas
lbowean@tribune.com
Twitter: @lollybowean
Alderman calls fire that claimed the lives of 2 children 'senseless'
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