Chicago Tribune
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A firefighter who was described as “loved by so many” died Monday morning after battling a blaze in Lincoln Park, according to the Chicago Fire Department.
Firefighter Andrew Price, 39, fell through a shaft and was trapped but was eventually pulled out of the building where the fire broke out, according to fire officials. The four-story building, at 2430-2432 N. Lincoln Ave., contains the Lincoln Station restaurant on the ground floor and apartments on the upper floors.
“He took a fall,” CPD spokesperson Larry Langford said. “He fell through the building.”
Price was transported in critical condition to Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital, where he died, CFD said.
The fire broke out at about 6 a.m., CFD Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt said at a news conference outside the hospital. Price was on the roof when he fell through a light shaft, sustaining “significant injuries.” Crews broke a hole through the wall to get him out and then performed CPR.
Price, known affectionately as “Drew” by friends and family, was married with children, Nance-Holt said. She said he was a “health nut,” working out frequently, and was “loved by so many.”
Price had been with the department since 2009 and was an instructor at the academy, Holt said. He was assigned to Truck No. 44 in 2015.
Battalion Chief Mike McCormick said a 45-year-old woman reported early Monday morning that there was a fire in a kitchen. When crews arrived, he said there was light smoke. He said crews were searching for “hot pockets” of fire when Price was injured. Langford said CFD did not suspect anything “nefarious” in how the fire started.
Price was responsive when fellow firefighters initially got eyes on him, McCormick said.
“They were having a hard time getting to him,” McCormick said. “We had to breach a wall.”
McCormick said Price was “as sweet as could be” and a “light of sunshine.” McCormick said he’d worked with him for almost 10 years.
“Never had a bad thing to say about anybody,” he said. “Kind of quiet, a good family man. Everybody loved him.”
About eight hours after the fire broke out, Price’s remains arrived at the Cook County medical examiner’s office on the Near West Side.
In keeping with tradition, two CFD engines held a 7-by-10 American flag over West Harrison Street while about 60 police and fire department officials stood in salute as the ambulance arrived a little after 2 p.m.
After the procession led into the medical examiner’s parking lot, CFD employees offered each other hugs and handshakes while bagpipers played hymns. One of the fire engines holding the flag blared its horn as the ambulance carrying Price neared the rear entrance to the county morgue.
Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement that his prayers are with Price’s family and colleagues, adding that “our collective hearts are heavy this morning.”
”Andrew gave his life in service to the City of Chicago, taking his position at the frontlines of a threat to our safety and community,” Johnson said. “He made the ultimate sacrifice to protect those in harm’s way — a debt we can never repay.”
Benn Hamm, who’s owned Lincoln Station since 2010, stood outside the popular restaurant Monday afternoon surrounded by co-workers and holding back tears. Hamm said he had been on the scene since about 6 a.m., watching firefighters fight the blaze as dark smoke billowed out of the building.
Hamm said the woman who cleans the restaurant called 911. He said he’s devastated over Price’s death.
“I was crushed about the fireman,” Hamm said. “My thoughts and prayers to his family because that’s just unbelievably tough.”
The restaurant’s windows were broken, with several people standing outside looking at the building, which is close to DePaul University’s Lincoln Park campus. Residents estimated that 30 people live in the apartments.
Sean Graney, 22, said he woke up at about 5 a.m. to the smell of smoke and someone banging on his door. Graney, who lives on the top floor of the building, said he threw on his clothes. He said he tried to exit through the back staircase but smoke forced him to go down a different one.
“I couldn’t see anything and I could hardly breathe,” Graney, a graduate student at Northwestern University, said. “So then we bolted to the front staircase.”
Graney waited alongside his roommate, pacing on the sidewalk just before noon, for news of whether they would be allowed back inside their apartment.
“For me, I’m just really sad,” Graney said. “This was my first apartment and then the firefighter dying, it’s just so sad.”
Price is the fourth firefighter to die in the line of duty in Chicago this year.
“Keep the Chicago Fire Department in your prayers and his family especially as they realized what so many other families have this year, that this job is a very, very, very dangerous job and we go to work and we never know who will come home,” Nance-Holt said.
Outside the Lincoln Park fire station where Price worked, a couple dozen firefighters gathered, some sitting on couches while others talked quietly with each other. The mood was somber as a few people arrived at the station to embrace the firefighters.
Chicago Tribune’s Jake Sheridan contributed.
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