5-year-old girl found dead in bunk bed in Englewood house fire: 'She was the sweetest child you ever wanted to see'
By Elvia Malagon
Katlyn Jefferies spent Thursday watching movies at an after-school program where she prepared to make an Easter basket while going around affectionately giving everyone a hug. By Friday morning, the 5-year-old girl was found dead after she became trapped inside a burning Englewood home.
"She walked up to everybody and gave them a hug," said Ava Temple, a coordinator of the after-school program, as she became emotional. "… she walked up to me and said Ms. Temple, I love you."
Firefighters arrived just after 7 a.m. to the girl's home in the 5800 block of South May Street and were told someone was trapped inside a burning brick two-flat, according to Deputy District Fire Chief Thomas Carbonneau. The girl's grandfather, Kevin Nowell, said he was trying to kick in a door to rescue the girl, but he was stopped by a police officer who had arrived at the scene.
He recalls hearing the girl's mother yelling, "the baby is still inside," Nowell said by phone Friday.
The girl was found on a top bunk bed inside a bedroom on the first floor of the building, Carbonneau said. Katlyn was pronounced dead on the scene.
"She was the sweetest child you ever wanted to see. Never got into trouble, never wanted to get in trouble," Nowell said. "I could have saved her."
A crowd of relatives grew emotional as fire officials investigated the cause and origin of the fire. A CTA bus was brought to the residential neighborhood to serve as a warming center for relatives. At one point, two women used their arms to hold up a crying woman. A man yelled at a police officer, arguing police should have allowed the relative to run into the burning building.
"Let it be one of yours," the man told officers.
Carbonneau said officials began searching for the girl as soon as they were told she could be trapped inside. The girl was immediately found but she was already dead by the time firefighters reached her, fire officials said.
"With the volume of fire we had, for us to let somebody else in there, it would be a danger to them," Carbonneau said.
It was unclear how many people were inside the building when the fire broke out, but fire officials believe at least three children, including Katlyn, were in the first-floor apartment, said Larry Langford, spokesman for the Chicago Fire Department. One child told officials they were woken up by a dog licking their face, Langford said.
Firefighters didn't find any working smoke detectors on the floor where the girl was found dead, but a working smoke detector was found in the second-floor unit, Langford said. The building did not have any recent code violations, according to the city's Department of Buildings.
The fire spread to a building next door and caused significant damage. Gregory Weaver, 61, lives on the corner of 58th and May streets and woke up Friday to someone screaming.
"I thought someone was fighting," Weaver said.
Soon, he heard a police officer telling him to get out of his home. Weaver woke up his 90-year-old mother and grabbed their dog, Dutches, and made it out of the home. It didn't appear the fire spread to their home, but the family stayed out of the home until fire officials went through to inspect it.
Another neighbor, Jose Garcia, 58, lives on the block behind where the girl lived. He woke up to sirens from emergency vehicles and saw flames jumping from one building to another.
Garcia, who has lived in the neighborhood for three years, later learned the girl he sometimes saw playing in the neighborhood died in the blaze.
"I never imagined someone was inside," Garcia said in Spanish about the fire. "It's sad, it's sad to see something like that."
Temple works with the after-school program through the Boys & Girls Club at Nicholson Technology Academy and stopped by to visit the girl's family. The girl had spent the past month in the program, creating crafts ranging from flowers to snow globes. Temple described Katlyn as talkative and eager to learn.
"Oh, she was a sweetheart," Temple said. "She always asked questions. Anytime we did something in the Boys & Girls Club, she jumped in. If it's not to help or if it's just to do something to help somebody. And I would say, Katlyn, stop talking, and she say, well, Ms. Temple I want to help."
[Most read] Column: CNN's shameful treatment of Bernie Sanders »
Carbonneau said the firefighters who worked the fire are tough but acknowledged it was also difficult because of the girl's death.
What would Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision be for 2020? 'A change definitely needs to take place,' says 9-year-old girl, winner of Chicago speech competition.
"It never gets easier," Carbonneau said. "You know, the more you see the harder it is sometimes."
Hours after the fire, a white van backed up to the home. A man got out of the van and went into the home to retrieve the girl's body. He carried her with both hands and placed her on a gurney before wheeling her into the back of the van.
emalagon@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @ElviaMalagon