Firefighter Injured

Struck by falling debris:

• A Chicago firefighter was injured while crews battled an apartment fire in frigid conditions overnight in Humboldt Park on the city’s Northwest Side.

  According to Chicago Fire Department officials, the fire broke out around midnight as Saturday turned to Sunday in an apartment building in the 1100 block of North Lawndale Avenue. It’s not clear where the fire may have started, but it spread to two neighboring buildings.

  Officials say about 100 firefighters responded to the blaze. A mayday call went out, and the firefighter was one of two people hospitalized. A CFD spokesperson said the firefighter was injured when he was hit by debris. He appeared to be alert as crews loaded him onto a stretcher. He was then taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where he was listed in fair to serious condition.

This was during the negative temps the other night, the type of call where you can see the icicles forming on the hoses, ladders and firefighters as they work. We saw a few of these fires back in the day, hydrants frozen up and down the block, hoses bursting, salt trucks standing by with tow trucks to drag equipment out of the ice jams.

Nights like that, we were always grateful someone else was doing that job.

Get well soon.