Maywood firefighters faced the harrowing task of plucking a person from the porch roof of a burning home and trying to rescue two others trapped inside — an effort made more perilous by a wind chill of nearly 20 below zero.
Despite their efforts, two women died in the blaze Wednesday. They were identified by family members and authorities as Jyl Moss, 55, and her mother, Annie, who were in the gray frame home on 16th Avenue when firefighters arrived shortly after 5 a.m.
In trying to rescue the victims — the man on the porch roof suffered smoke inhalation — firefighters had to navigate the daunting challenge of streaming thousands of gallons of water into a burning building in the deep freeze of an early February morning. They faced an array of other problems — from frozen hydrants and hoses to fire engine wheels locked in frozen water.
The pavement was a treacherous mix of slush and thin layers of ice. Long icicles hung from the eaves of the charred house, where the roof had collapsed. The firemen were covered with ice, an occupational hazard on the coldest days.
Maywood Fire Chief John Cadagin had bundled himself up, but after fighting the elements for more than six hours, he was clearly feeling cold.
“I’ve probably got another 20 pounds of ice on me, so that really creates a problem,” he said.
On Wednesday, fires were also reported in Bolingbrook, Joliet and Lyons. Although U.S. Fire Administration figures show that the highest daily average of fires occurs in spring, winter has the highest number of structural fires.
Nearly 109,000 residential building fires occurred each winter from 2005 to 2007, a USFA analysis showed. Those fires caused 945 deaths and more than $1.7 billion in property losses each year, on average.
Ice is one of the central problems for fighting such fires, experts say.
It can clog hoses and pipes from tankers, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford, so firefighters keep a trickle of water flowing through a hose and from the truck tank in extremely cold weather.
On the rare occasions when water freezes in all available fire hydrants, city steam trucks shoot pressurized steam into them, Langford said. Firefighters also will thrust a road flare into a frozen hydrant to unclog it, he said.
Staying warm and dry is less of a problem for firefighters than one might think, Langford added. Modernized “bunker gear” includes tighter-fitting layers of a half-length coat, bib-height insulated pants and sturdy rubber winter boots that provide better traction on snow and ice.
At the Lyons house fire, firefighters from Bedford Park, Brookfield, McCook and La Grange assisted in part because of the cold weather, said Lyons Fire Chief Gordon Nord.
“It allows us to work in shifts,” he said. “Firefighters then have an opportunity to warm up” in fire trucks and emergency vehicles.
Lyons fire Lt. Keith Gajeski said the wind made it feel colder and sprayed water over everything near the two-story home on the 4000 block of Konrad Avenue. There were no injuries.
“Everything just takes longer in the cold and snow,” Gajeski said. “Walking takes longer, hooking equipment up to the hydrants — everything is more difficult to do.”
In Joliet, where a minor house fire broke out after a lamp set clothes smoldering, the city has dug out all fire hydrants from the 20 inches of snow that hit on Feb. 1.
“We kind of cross our fingers,” Joliet Fire Chief Joe Formhals said, “and hopefully don’t have any major incidents until this weekend when it warms up.”
Tribune reporters Mary Owen and Michelle Manchir and freelancer Joe Ruzich contributed.
