2 Chicago firefighters die in roof collapse

Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO - At daybreak yesterday, Corey Ankum and Edward Stringer were among the firefighters quelling a blaze in an abandoned building when the roof gave way, trapping them inside.

Ankum and Stringer died and more than a dozen firefighters were injured on the 100th anniversary of the city's most devastating fire.

Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said both men died of trauma. Ankum had been with the department less than two years, Stringer about 12 years.

In all, 19 firefighters suffered injuries, Fire Commissioner Robert Hoff said. He said the injuries of those who survived were not considered life-threatening.

Hoff said firefighters were in the building and on the roof, searching for hot spots and whether anyone was inside, when the roof collapsed. The two who died were inside the building, he said.

"The search effort was aggressive. Two members were found immediately," he said. "Every firefighter that was there did the best they could to save their brothers."

Hoff said it was decided to search inside the building because "people in this kind of weather seek refuge, and we take no building as being vacant. We do it cautiously, but we go in for people who may try to get out of the cold."

He said there was "no indication to the chief officers and company officers at the scene that [the roof] was in danger of collapse. That's when we make our decision to go in and do a search." Hoff would not speculate on what caused the fire.

Chuck Dai, who co-owns the building with a younger brother, said he has been struggling to keep squatters from entering ever since his laundry business at the site failed about six years ago and he stopped paying property taxes on the site.

"It's been a tiresome battle just to keep it buttoned up and everything," said Dai, 61, speaking from another laundry he owns nearby.

Though the property had been boarded up several times, he said, "somehow they managed to break in." Dai said he learned about the dramatic rescue attempt and the death of two men while watching the morning news in horror, he said.

It was the worst fire for the department since February 1998, when two firefighters died. A roof collapsed in a burning building, killing Patrick King, 40, and Anthony Lockhart, 40. They were among the first to enter the building.

The deaths came, to the day, a century after a huge fire at the Union Stockyards that claimed the lives of 21 firefighters, the single greatest loss in U.S. history of professional big-city firefighters until Sept. 11, 2001.