Chicago

Fire Tears Through Apartment Building on Chicago's North Side

Several residents are displaced after a fire tore through their apartment building on Chicago’s North Side early Saturday.

Witnesses said the fire began around 12:30 a.m. in the 5100 block of N. Paulina St. in the city’s Ravenswood neighborhood.

“I grabbed an extinguisher and I tried to manage my door because I didn’t know – I couldn’t tell if it was the whole building or not,” said Patrick O’Keefe, whose apartment was destroyed in the blaze. “I did my door, walked a little bit closer to the door and I could see the whole patio was up,” he added.

A second alarm was called around 1 a.m., fire officials said, with more than 100 firefighters responding to the scene. [[433303123, C]]

The blaze began in a three-story apartment building and spread to the two-story house next door, authorities said.

Fire officials initially said the blaze was struck out around 1:30 a.m., though they returned to the scene a few hours later after a hot spot caught fire again around 5:30 a.m.

Firefighters remained on the scene, searching the premises for any further hot spots.

No injuries were reported, though an unknown number of residents were displaced by the blaze.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

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