CHICAGO — A fire that seriously injured a man on the South Side Monday morning was deliberately set, the Chicago Fire Department said.
The blaze broke out in an apartment building in the 5600 Block of South Racine Avenue sometime before 7 a.m., according to the fire department. Residents woke to the sound of fire alarms in the building and called 911, the fire department said.
The fire started when a flammable liquid was poured in a stairwell of the building and then ignited, the fire department tweeted late Monday morning. Earlier, fire spokesman Larry Langford said a stairwell tends to be a "favorite place for arsonists to start fires in a multi-story building."
A 26-year-old man was rescued from the third floor of the building and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in serious-to-critical condition with cuts and burns on his body, fire department spokesman Larry Langford said.
The man was about to jump from the third floor, and firefighters saved him using a ladder, according to the fire department.
The flames were under control by about 7:20 a.m., the fire department said.
