PILSEN — Dora Maria Hernandez and her three children were sound asleep in their basement apartment when their air conditioning unit crashed against the ground, and their upstairs neighbor came bursting through their window.
"Fuego! Todos vayan para fuera! Fuera!" screamed Manuel Beltran, with a wall of flames raging behind him — "Fire! Everybody get out! Get out!"
Someone had set fire to the family's back porch, one of seven acts of apparent arson reported around the Pilsen neighborhood early Friday morning.
Rear of the house on Blue Island that saw the worst of it this morning. Residents say fire was started on back porch pic.twitter.com/CFnwo0cgx5
— Alex Nitkin (@AlexNitkin) September 16, 2016
The blazes left one man dead and 25 people displaced in Pilsen, Chicago Fire spokesman Larry Langford said.
Around 3 a.m., nearly 100 firefighters and police responded to calls of separate fires around the neighborhood. Officials believe the fires were set intentionally, Langford confirmed, because of the fire pattern, proximity and times.
"You don't have seven fires start by themselves that close together," Langford said. "That's just way too much coincidence."
Fire crews clean up and investigate the scene of seven overnight arsons in Pilsen. One man was found dead and dozens were displaced. [DNAinfo/Alex Nitkin]
• In the 2100 block of West 21st Street, responders found a man unresponsive inside a garage, police said. He was later pronounced dead. A preliminary investigation determined the man likely died of smoke inhalation, Langford said. The medical examiner's office is expected to conduct a second investigation.
"There were no obvious signs of trauma, like bullet holes," Langford said.
• In the 2200 block of South Blue Island Avenue, at least 18 people were left homeless — including Hernandez and Beltran — after multiple homes were destroyed, police said.
Garage fires were also set in the following blocks, with no injuries reported:
• The 1700 block of West 21st Street
• The 2100 block of South Wood Street
• The 1800 block of West 21st Street
The fires were set in alley garbage cans or on garages and spread to garages and homes, fire officials said. The police department's Bomb and Arson Unit is investigating the fires, police said.
Ald. Danny Solis (25th) said there are a number of surveillance cameras in the area and police are reviewing footage now.
"Later today or tomorrow morning, we should have more answers," Solis said.
City agencies and Solis planned to visit the fire victims Friday afternoon and assess their immediate needs.
'We have nothing'
Manuel Beltran (front) with his sons Jeffrey and Christopher. [DNAinfo/Alex Nitkin]
Beltran was sleeping in his first floor apartment when he woke to the sound of wood crackling outside his window, he said. When he got up and saw flames licking up against the side of his two-floor wooden apartment building, he woke his wife and five kids and sent them racing out the door.
An older married couple living upstairs darted out the front door around the same time.
But as Beltran joined a scene of chaos and confusion out in the street, he realized one family was still missing.
"The folks in the basement, they were all sleeping still, and you could tell the fire was really strong there," he said in Spanish.
Manuel tried their door, but it was locked, he said. So he thrashed himself against their window AC until it ripped an opening between him and Hernandez's family.
As firefighters sifted through the wreckage Friday morning, Hernandez sat shaking on the sidewalk outside what had been her home.
"I don't even know what happened," Hernandez said. "I just heard yelling and — I don't know. I don't know what happened."
Both families were grappling with the realization Friday that they'd have to find new homes, or temporary shelters.
Beltran had made his living selling clothes and electronics at a nearby flea market, according to his 24-year-old son, Jeffrey Beltran. The family was offered shelter by Red Cross workers at the scene, but as far as work, they'd more or less be starting from scratch, they said.
"All my stuff was in there," Manuel Beltran said. "I have no home, and no job. We have nothing."
Jeffrey Beltran said his father is widely known around the neighborhood as "a humble man" often willing to help his neighbors.
"If it weren't for him, I don't know if any of us would even be here right now," Jeffrey Beltran said. "I don't know what people are saying now ... but he's always been a hero to me."
As Graciela Velazquez looked up at the remains of her second-floor apartment, she also marveled at how she and her husband had escaped the devastation unscathed.
"Whoever did this, I don't know how they couldn't understand the consequences of what they've done," Velazquez said in Spanish. "We could all have been dead by now."
Community members are trying to help those affected by the fires with a weekend supply drive. Donors can bring supplies noon-3 p.m. Saturday and noon-3 p.m. Sunday to the American Legion Dorman Dunn Post 547, 2129 W. Cermak.
'It's like they were all targeted'
Meanwhile, about a half-mile away in the 2100 block of West 21st Street, Jennifer Mosley awoke early Friday to the sight of smoke billowing outside her window.
Someone had set a fire behind the two-story wood home next door to her, filling the garage with smoke, Mosley said. A man who lived in the garage was trapped and suffocated from smoke inhalation.
She didn't know the man, she said, but the experience was nonetheless "really scary."
"From what I could tell, all the fires were in garages that were directly attached to wood houses," Mosley said. "It's like they were all targeted."
The early Friday fires come after other recent fires in the neighborhood this summer. On July 20, a fire broke out in a residential building at 2036 W. 21st Place, displacing 18 people. On July 22, a fire at 21st Street and Hoyne Avenue near the Damen Pink Line tracks displaced a musician who was away on tour.
About two dozen people displaced from 2 11 on blue island pic.twitter.com/DVozeg0G9R
— Chicago Fire Media (@CFDMedia) September 16, 2016
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