A fire at an apartment building in the 3500 block of North Wilton Avenue last week killed two men, one of whom was critically injured when he tried to escape by jumping from a fourth-floor window. The fire was reported at 1:15 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 4.
Donald Hruby, 39, was pronounced dead the next day at Illinois Masonic Medical Center. He died of a head injury, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. He had suffered a fractured skull and spine, epidural bleeding and burns over 12 percent of his body, police said.
Timothy Clark, a 25-year-old mental health worker, died during the blaze. Firefighters found him in his bathroom, severely burned and showing no signs of life. He had apparently been trying to breathe by placing a wet towel over his face, police said.
Two other men were treated at Illinois Masonic Hospital for minor injuries and smoke inhalation. A firefighter broke an ankle and was treated at St. Joseph Hospital.
The fire was ruled an aggravated arson, and police are investigating it as homicide. No information on suspects or possible motives was available as Inside went to press.
The arsonists had started fires in several places around the building: Paper was set ablaze in a front hallway of the building, causing minor damage, and also on the first floor landing of the rear porch, Sgt. Charlotte Delatorre of the Chicago Police Bomb and Arson Section said Tuesday. Also, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that a 23-year-old resident who escaped said he saw phone books on fire outside the front door of the building. Damage to the building, especially the rear, was extensive.
The 2-11 fire brought out four Chicago Fire Department engine companies, five trucks, one tower and ladder truck and three ambulances, as well as a deputy district fire chief, four battalion chiefs, several police detectives and many patrol officers, police said.
Chief Dennis Gault of the Chicago Fire Department Office of Fire Investigation said Tuesday afternoon that the status of the building’s compliance with fire codes and the presence of smoke detectors was “still under investigation.”
In another arson investigation—that of the St. John’s Assyrian American Apostolic Church, which was set on fire Sept. 23—police said they hadn’t found any information proving it was a hate crime. Although a sister church in suburban Roselle had received a letter asking “whose side” the Assyrians were on—apparently alluding to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11—the Lawrence Avenue church had received “no threats or any indication of why someone would set a fire there,” Sgt. Delatorre said.
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