CHICAGO: A fire at a Chicago apartment building that appears to have been deliberately set killed four people Tuesday, including three children, police said.
The fire began around 1:30 a.m. in a three-story building in the South Chicago neighborhood.
A preliminary investigation indicates a person returned to the building after a domestic dispute and set fire to the rear porch, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
Officers are searching for a “person of interest wanted for questioning,” he said.
An emailed police statement said a 3-month-old was pronounced dead at a hospital and two other children and a man were found dead later at the scene.
Three other people have bene hospitalized, according to the Chicago Fire Department’s media office.
Witnesses told reporters they saw several people jumping from windows to escape.
Clay Turner said he saw a man screaming for help on the ground with the 3-month-old next to him. He told the Chicago Tribune he ran to them and tried to help.
“I’m just speechless,” Turner said.
A resident, 25-year-old Lanita Smith, told the newspaper that she woke up to loud noises and thought someone was breaking in to her apartment. But then she saw her kitchen door was on fire.
“The fire was upstairs and downstairs,” she said. “My whole porch was on fire.”