Boy found dead after firefighters rescue woman from Far South Side fire

A boy was found dead in an attic crawlspace several hours after firefighters rescued a woman from a Roseland neighborhood house fire this morning.
A woman, 66, was rescued from the home in the 10700 block of South Prairie Avenue, but the boy, believed to be age 7, was found in an attic crawlspace by fire investigators several hours after the fire was extinguished.
Two dogs, including one found near the boy in the attic, also died in the fire, Fire Commissioner Robert Hoff said.
Hoff said the fire was extremely smoky and the child was hidden from view in the attic.
"It was a difficult position where the child was," Hoff said. "The child was probably 5 feet under where the window branches out."
Hoff said he didn't know exactly how much time had passed before the child was found, but he said it was "well after the fire was put out."
Firefighters were called to the 1 1/2 story frame home about 10 a.m. and found smoke and flames coming largely from the basement of the home, said Fire Department spokesman Kevin MacGregor. The fire was traveling up the inside of the home's walls rapidly, he said.
Rescuers found the woman unresponsive in the rear of the home's first floor, apparently suffering from smoke inhalation, MacGregor said. The woman was resuscitated and was taken to Roseland Hospital in critical condition, MacGregor said. Firefighter found working smoke detectors in the home.
The woman was later transferred to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood for treatment of severe smoke inhalation, according to the Fire Department.
When officials from the Office of Fire Investigations went to the home and were looking for evidence regarding the spread of the fire when they found the boy in a crawlspace in the attic, between what's known as the kneewall of the attic and the inside of the roof, MacGregor said. It appeared the boy may have been trying to find a window that was nearby and missed finding it, officials said.
Because of confusion about who lived at the home among those who were giving fire personnel information on-scene, firefighters had nothing to indicate that anyone else lived at the home during their initial searches, MacGregor said.
"There was no indication that anyone knew there was a child there," MacGregor said.
The cause of the blaze was under investigation.