LAKEVIEW — J.C. Orlins was allowed back into his Lakeview apartment Friday morning, hours after a fire broke out in the building that left four of his neighbors critically wounded.
The fire appears to have started in an upper, rear unit of the six-unit building in the 3400 block of North Janssen Avenue, a few feet from the Southport Brown Line stop. It caused two people to have to jump from the third story to safety.
Orlins, 29, lives with two roommates in an upper, front-facing apartment and was asleep at 1:50 a.m. Friday when fire alarms sounded. At first, it didn't occur to him that a fire had started, and a serious one at that.
"There was a Cubs game. I thought, 'Who's the idiot burning food this late?'" Orlins said.
The fire appears to have started in an upper-floor apartment. [DNAinfo/Joe Ward]
He woke his two roommates and they left through the front doors without incident, he said.
But for at least four other residents of the three-flat, escaping was not so easy.
Firefighters had to rescue two people who were trapped inside a unit, said Cmdr. Frank Velez, Chicago Fire spokesman. They were critically wounded, he said.
Two others had to jump from third-floor windows to escape the flames, Velez said. They were also critically wounded, he said.
Orlins said he saw the people jump from the windows and said they appeared to be seriously injured. He doesn't know those or his other neighbors particularly well, he said.
"It looked bad," he said.
Two were brought to Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the other two were brought to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, Velez said.
Orlins said a top-floor apartment's floor caved in due to the amount of water trapped inside. He said he has heard that the building can be salvaged, but everyone has to move out anyway.
"They said it has to be completely gutted," he said. "Everyone has to move out. We might be staying in a hotel for awhile."
Orlins said his apartment sustained soot, smoke and water damage but that he was able to salvage a few belongings at about 10 a.m. Friday.
He was walking some of his suits and other clothes to a nearby dry cleaner.
"Just starting the cleaning process," he said. "We'll have to throw a whole lot of stuff out."
The house directly south of the one that caught on fire sustained damage to its siding. [DNAinfo/Joe Ward]
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