A 25-year-old West Side man risked his life Friday to rescue two young girls who had been seriously burned in a fire caused by an exploding space heater in their family`s apartment.
In a fire in Lake County Friday, two young boys were killed and their father was injured in their Hainesville apartment.
Chicago Fire Department officials said that Roedell Campbell, 644 N. Mayfield Ave., who rescued the two girls, will be recommended for the Mayor`s Citizen`s Award for Valor, one of the city`s highest awards.
They said Campbell broke a window with his bare hands to get into a smoke-filled first floor apartment at 654 N. Mayfield Ave. to rescue Kenyatta Luckey, 8, and her sister, Natiza, 5.
The two girls were treated at West Suburban Hospital Medical Center, Oak Park, and then transferred to the burn unit of Cook County Hospital where they were listed in serious condition, a spokesman said.
The girl`s mother, Linda McFowler, 24, was listed in fair condition in West Suburban Hospital Medical Center with smoke inhalation suffered during an unsuccessful effort to rescue her daughters.
Campbell was treated for cuts and burns on his hands and legs.
The girls` grandparents, who also lived in the apartment, escaped without injury as did the residents of 12 other apartments in the building. The two story brick structure had smoke detectors, firefighters said.
Detective George Jenkins of the police bomb and arson unit said McFowler told him that she had poured gasoline into the heater before turning it on in the apartment`s kitchen Thursday night.
In the other early morning blaze, Shawn Morgan, 3, and his brother, Christopher, 5, were killed, and their father, Stanley, 27, was seriously injured when a fire broke out as they slept in a second floor apartment in a two-story frame house on Ill. Hwy. 120, in Hainesville, a community of about 200 halfway between Waukegan and Fox Lake.
Firefighters said the blaze apparently began in a bathroom, quickly filling the apartment with heavy smoke. The boys` father, unable to rescue his sons, jumped to safety from a window. He was listed in serious condition in Condell Memorial Hospital, Libertyville, suffering from smoke inhalation, a spokesman said.
