An 81-year-old woman died after being pulled from a fire with severe burns in Chicago's Stony Island neighborhood as firefighters say rescue efforts were complicated by a frozen fire hydrant.
Authorities said they responded to the scene just before 2 a.m. Tuesday in the 8200 block of South Cornell Avenue.
There, police said an 81-year-old woman "was removed from the residence with severe burns."
The woman was taken to University of Chicago Hospital in critical condition and later succumbed to her injuries, authorities said.
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The fire remained under investigation Tuesday morning but firefighters at the scene told NBC 5 their efforts to put out the blaze were challenged due to the fire hydrant in the area being frozen.
Wind chills dropped as low as -10 degrees at O'Hare Airport Tuesday morning, but even colder conditions were expected to arrive Tuesday evening and into Wednesday morning.
The fire was one of two blazes to happen around that time Tuesday morning.
Local
A second fire broke out around 1:30 a.m. in the 3800 block of South Wells, leaving a 60-year-old woman in critical condition.
