WEST GARFIELD PARK (WBBM Newsradio) -- Chicago crews are just beginning their investigation into what sparked a fire that destroyed three homes on the city's West side.
No one was hurt in the Monday morning fires on Fulton Avenue, just east of Cicero in this neighborhood right on the border with Austin.
One of the people living in the houses, Antonio Harris, said he was able to get his family to safety after he and his wife realized what had started at his neighbor's house just four feet away.
A firefighter walks down Fulton Avenue as crews work to extinguish a fire that destroyed three houses on the city's West side.
Geoff Buchholz
"We were both in bed with the grandbaby and she said she smelled smoke," Harris told reporters as he stood on the north side of Fulton, across the street from the house that he said had been in his family for 60 years. "I opened the door, there was a big cloud of smoke. The fire comin through the window and I was like 'wow, we gotta get out of here.'"
Harris said everyone inside the house got out safely, along with two cats and a dog, and then he kept going.
"I went and knocking on the doors, kicking in the doors tellin' everyone there was a fire," he said. "Didn't want nobody to get hurt."
Authorities say the fire forced as many as 26 people from homes, and CFD Special Operations chief Jamar Sullivan praised the neighbors who helped: "I think that's outstanding. That's what a community is supposed to be about."
Salvation Army relief workers had already set up at the east end of the block by noon, and while Harris said he imagined he and his family would stay with other relatives on the West side, their next move was unclear.
"I don't have a clue. I haven't a clue yet," he said. "It's crazy."
