A 55-year-old man died after he jumped from a third-floor balcony when a fire broke out Wednesday night in the Rolling Meadows condominium building in which he lived, officials said.
Kenneth Vansickle was pronounced dead after being transported to Northwest Community Hospital, Fire Chief Scott Franzgrote said. Vansickle was found by first responders lying outside the rear of the building at 5201 Carriageway Drive in cardiac arrest.
No other injuries were reported, Franzgrote said.
The three-alarm blaze engulfed the three-story building containing 48 condominium units, Franzgrote said.
A release issued by the department Thursday morning said firefighters received a call at 8:03 p.m. through the Northwest Central Dispatch Center, which was activated by a fire detection system in the roughly 50-year-old building along Algonquin Road.
According to the release, the three floors above ground are not protected by a fire suppression system. However, the below level parking garage is protected by a fire suppression system.
The exact cause of the fire was still under investigation Thursday morning. The building sustained significant damage from fire, smoke and water and many residents were displaced during the below-zero temperatures Wednesday night.
Teresa Pfister, a resident of the Rolling Meadows complex, said she arrived home Wednesday night at 8:30 p.m., jumped into her pajamas and popped open her computer, only to be startled by the fire alarm five minutes later.
“I opened up my patio door, looked out and up, and saw flames shooting out 10 to 20 feet in the air from unit 303 above me,” said Pfister, 60, a professional business writer who lived in the building at 5201 Carriageway Drive for more than 20 years. “Then there was this loud boom, something had exploded, and my apartment shook. I was jarred by it.”
Pfister grabbed her coat, purse and computer and headed out into the frigid temperatures with the dozens of other neighbors to watch the building go up in smoke. Some residents headed down the street to a warming bus provided by the city.
“People were huddling together and crying,” said Pfister, who said she only vaguely knew Vansickle, her neighbor and the lone fatality in the three-alarm fire. She said he was quiet and was home a lot alone but would always wave when she saw him. She confirmed she did see his wife outside the building last night. Pfister explained it was a “really nice building,” with many children living there.
Pfister said she was in shock last night. She stayed with family, while many neighbors who were displaced headed to area hotels. When she went to Meijer Thursday to buy a pair of jeans, the shock subsided.
“It hit me, my staff is all gone. Everything will be destroyed. And I began to cry,” she said, as she surveyed the outside of the building Thursday morning.
On the scene with the fire marshal Thursday investigating the cause of the fire, Franzgrote confirmed that the southeast portion of the building, the site of Pfister’s condo, was totally demolished in the blaze but he suspects other residents may be able to return to the building at some point in the next day or so.
Sprinkler systems were not inside any of the housing units in the building, he confirmed, and may have contributed to the blaze. However, the underground garage did have sprinklers for vehicle fires. Franzgrote said the building met city codes.
Annette Byrd, vice president of property manager Associa of Chicagoland-Schaumburg, asked that residents who are seeking updates, access and assistance with their insurance claims to contact Associa at 847-490-3833. She could not immediately say how many people lived in the building.
Firefighters arrived to heavy smoke and flames shooting into the air from the third floor in the rear of the building. The fire continued past 10 p.m., leaving many firefighters covered in ice from the water hoses spraying from the ladder trucks.
A Mutual Aid Box Alarm (MABAS) was activated and 20 units and 104 firefighters from neighboring departments brought the fire under control by 11:52 p.m., according to the release.
Those departments included Palatine, Palatine Rural, Arlington Heights, Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates, Elk Grove Village, Elk Grove Township, Streamwood, Des Plaines, Mount Prospect, Wheeling, Buffalo Grove, Lake Zurich, Wood Dale, Roselle, Itasca, Long Grove, Prospect Heights, Bloomingdale, Rosemont, Northbrook, Hanover Park, North Maine and Addison.
The Illinois Office of the State Fire Marshal, Rolling Meadows Police Department and the Rolling Meadows Fire Department were on the scene Thursday morning continuing their investigation.
