A fire tore through a Rogers Park townhome early Thursday morning, killing a family of four, including a 13-year-old boy and their dog, police, witnesses and an alderperson said.
The 13-year-old boy was identified as Kilmer International Academy eighth grader Valentino Vallejo in an email to school families from Kilmer Principal Natalie Rodriguez.
Rodriguez said the school will have grief counseling and other support available for students and provide funeral information when it's available.
"We are devastated by news of a tragic house fire this morning in our community and the loss of one of our CPS 8th graders and members of their family," the statement said. "Our thoughts are first and foremost with this student’s family members, loved ones, and the school community."
Two women, 69 and 46, and a 22-year-old man were also found unresponsive at the two-story home around 4:15 a.m., Chicago police said.
They were taken to area hospitals where they were pronounced dead, police said.
Their names were not being released immediately, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
Angelita Sanchez organized a GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses. The victims were her mother, sister and two nephews.
"There are simply no words to describe the heartbreak of losing not one, but four people we love so deeply, all at once," the fundraiser description reads. "Our hearts are shattered, and we are facing a reality we never could have prepared for."
Elise Adu, who lives two units down from where the fire started at 7049 N. Paulina St., woke up to her neighbors screaming out their window for help. One of the family members, she said, shouted that they “didn’t have their phone.”
She remembered thinking, "This cannot be real."
“I grabbed my phone and ran to my parents’ room and said, 'Something’s happening outside, we need to call 911,'" Adu, 27, said.
After she, her parents and their dog got outside, she set out to wake the neighbors. And an awful thought dawned on her.
“I kept thinking that if someone’s inside, they’re not surviving that,” she said.
Adu saw the family — a grandmother, mother and two grandchildren — every day. She'd often leave her keys with them while on family trips.
"It's a horrific tragedy to lose an entire family,'' 49th Ward Ald. Maria Hadden told the Chicago Sun-Times. “They had a dog they walked, and a lot of people knew them. They were a lovely family. It hits really hard.”
Hadden confirmed the GoFundMe, which had raised more than $22,000 as of 7:40 p.m. Thursday and was increasing by the minute, was organized by the family of the victims.
Hadden confirmed the dog, which Adu said was a brown 4-year-old Labradoodle named Remi, died in the fire.
The family always helped host block parties, Adu said.
“They were always doing something,” Adu said. “I feel like they were always celebrating life the most.”
Several neighbors called the fire devastating and tearfully mourned as authorities investigated.
The burnt inside of the home was visible from the sidewalk, and the faint smell of smoke still permeated the air around 9:30 a.m. Thursday.
Family members a Sun-Times reporter identified gathered along one side of the crime scene tape, while neighbors sat together on the opposite side.
Some relatives bellowed emotional wails that echoed in the air as they embraced each other. All were too distraught to talk about the tragedy.
Anita Miller said she has lived directly next door to where the fire happened since 1978. She was making her way up the stairs when she said she noticed “very thin smoke” in her stairway.
“I’ve lived here for a very long time, and there has never been anything like this,” Miller said. “I’m just sorry that we never got to know each other. We shared a wall, and I didn’t really know them very well at all.”
About 11:25 a.m., a man burst into tears and went limp as others helped him up. Chicago Fire Department paramedics had him sit on a stretcher and loaded him into the back of an ambulance.
In a statement on X, Mayor Brandon Johnson called the fire a "devastating tragedy."
"My heart goes out to the family’s loved ones and all those in the community impacted by this devastating tragedy," Johnson said in the statement. "As CFD investigates the cause of the fire, my administration will remain on the ground, working to ensure that those affected have access to the critical support and resources they need."
It was not known immediately where or how the fire started, a fire department spokesperson said. Hadden said there was no evidence of foul play.
“It was a well-constructed building with firewalls; that’s one of the reasons the fire didn’t spread," she said.
Hadden said each unit is privately owned, and the family did not have a landlord.
Neighbors in the units on either side of theirs are temporarily displaced and staying with relatives, Hadden added.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
