A wrong turn on the way to his friend’s house led Cadarius Wilson to be in the right place at the right time Wednesday to help save two teenage boys in a fatal house fire in West Englewood that authorities say they are investigating as arson.
The 16-year-old and 14-year-old survived the flames by jumping out a window from the engulfed home and into Wilson’s arms.
“I told them I am not going anywhere. Y’all can jump,” said Wilson, 24. “I am right here to catch y’all. I am not going to leave.”
The teens were listed in stable condition at Comer Children’s Hospital on Wednesday, authorities said, and Chicago police had no updates on their conditions Thursday. But the overnight fire on the 6200 block of South Paulina Street claimed the lives of Reginald Lee Wilson, 57, Lisa Brown, 57, and Royalty Rattler, 8, whose deaths were ruled a homicide by the Cook County medical examiner’s office Thursday.
The death of a 15-year-old boy, who wasn’t publicly identified, was also ruled a homicide.
All four died from thermal injuries and carbon monoxide toxicity due to a residential fire, per the medical examiner’s office. The adults died from severe burns after being in critical condition for hours.
Wilson told the Tribune he saw flames erupting from the home around 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday and tried to alert the residents inside of the danger. He was unable to get into the home because of a locked gate, but yelled outside the home to try to alert residents and neighbors of the fire and then called 911.
After catching the boys from their jump, Wilson, a stranger to the family, said he stayed to keep them calm and reassured. He reminded them to keep breathing.
“I wouldn’t want no one to leave me,” Wilson said. “I would want someone to stay and help me, so that’s exactly what I did.”
A neighbor said that the adults in the home were foster parents to the children, and a spokesperson for the Department of Children and Family Services said they’d been contacted by law enforcement, but could not confirm the relationship of the adults and children.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with this family during this unimaginable tragedy,” said Illinois Department of Child and Family Services spokesperson Heather Tarczan. “DCFS received a report of this incident from law enforcement early the morning of May 20 and is working in cooperation with local law enforcement to investigate and confirm the identity of the individuals involved, none of which are believed to be youth in care.”
The now-burned house was quiet by late Thursday afternoon. Three strands of police tape hung from the gates lining the property as a lone news van waited on the street corner. At the foot of the front gate, three candles, one red and two white, had been placed along the sidewalk. One bouquet of roses swayed in the wind.
Around the house, charred debris lay scattered about while a pile of children’s bikes filled a corner of the front lawn. A few feet away, two doors black with soot sat in tan bark.
In the backyard, a purple and pink toy car rested in the sun.
Joseph Mcneal stopped by the house with three balloons and a poster in hand. He tied the balloons to the front gate.
“My condolences to your family and ours,” the poster read.
Mcneal, 42, met Wilson and Brown years ago, the Chicago native said. They used to throw barbecues and games of dominoes, Mcneal remembered.
“They was good people, like real good people,” he said. “In my eyes, they don’t deserve this at all.”
Mcneal said they were his people, his family. Mcneal last saw them two months ago. They sat on the porch and just talked, Mcneal said, flashing a wistful smile.
Tears pooled in his eyes when he looked at the house.
Mcneal, who works at a gas station nearby, was planning to pay his friends a visit when he learned what had happened.
“I started crying. … That’s all you (can) do,” he said. “You’re gonna have chills in your body. Your heart’s gonna start racing a certain way. When you love somebody, that’s what you do.”
A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools could not confirm if the children were CPS students. But the school district issued a statement extending its “heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, school and community members impacted by this tragedy.”
Wilson said that the fire was not the first time he has been in a life-and-death situation. He was able to stay calm and know how to help because of that.
“It’s not my first time, but I have to ask myself, ‘Why am I honestly put into these positions constantly?’ I wasn’t even supposed to be at that house. It just happened that I was there … right time, right place,” Wilson said.
Despite his selfless decision to stay, Wilson does not consider himself a hero, but as a “regular person” who was “always taught to love.”
“If I were, if that were the case, everyone would be alive right now. I was only there doing what I can and I’m grateful for the things I was able to do while I was there,” Wilson said.
Wilson described the family as “very strong,” and asked neighbors to keep the family in their prayers.
