Man dies in Chatham neighborhood apartment fire

Firetrucks on the scene of fatal fire Sunday night in the Chatham neighborhood. (WGN-TV)

A 52-year-old man was killed late Sunday night, December 12th, in an apartment fire in the city's Chatham neighborhood from which several other people were rescued, authorities said.

The fire in the 200 block of East 83rd Street was called in at about 9:40 p.m., according to the Chicago Fire Department. The victim was identified by the Cook County medical examiner's office this morning as Leslie Jones of the same address.

Jones died of carbon monoxide poisoning and inhalation of smoke and soot from a kitchen fire, the Cook County medical examiner's office found today.

Jones was was rushed to nearby Jackson Park Hospital and Medical Center in full cardiac arrest and later pronounced dead there, authorities said. Four or 5 other people were rescued from the 12-unit apartment, which is largely occupied by senior citizens, said Chicago Fire Department Battalion Chief William Vogt.

Firefighters arrived on-scene and found a fire in the kitchen of a third-floor apartment in the rear of the building, Vogt said. Under heavy smoke conditions, they found Jones in a bathroom at the rear of the building and pulled him out to a waiting ambulance, Vogt said.

Jones is the third person to die in a Chicago-area residential fire over the weekend. The 83rd Street home is also only a mile from where a home was "flattened" in an apparent gas explosion.