Personal Injury Law

Arrests made in deadly Illinois apartment fire

On the morning of Valentine?s day, a tragic deadly fire killed seven people, including four children, in Cicero, Illinois. Further, a Cicero Fire Department firefighter also suffered a personal injury when a chimney collapsed on his head inside the building. Two adults were wrongfully killed near the porch area and five others were found in the attic of the building which had a single stairwell as a means of escape. During the fire, however, the stairwell was blocked and trapped the victims.

Yesterday, the Chicago Tribune outlined the landlord?s alleged murder plan that led to the deadly Illinois fire. According to Cook County prosecutors, the landlord intended to burn down one of his Cicero apartment buildings and collect on the $250,000 insurance policy. He was planning to move to West Virginia and make himself hard to find without a telephone or mail service. He is alleged to have hired the Cicero building?s maintenance man to carry out the plot to torch the wood structure during the day when the children were at school and women were at work. Apparently, the handyman didn?t listen ? and set fire at 6:30 a.m. on a Sunday.

Unfortunately, the Chicago injury attorneys are not unfamiliar with stories of deadly Illinois fires. The Illinois wrongful death attorneys represented the families of six children who died in a tragic apartment fire on Chicago?s north side. Two other children had sustained severe burns in the fire. The landlords of the building where the deadly fire occurred failed to have proper and working smoke detectors in violation of the Chicago Municipal Code. The Chicago attorneys obtained a $6 million settlement on behalf of the families of the Chicago fire victims.

Click here to read more about the deadly Illinois fire.

Full post as published by Illinois Injury Lawyer Blog on March 08, 2010 (boomark / email).