‘It’s just unbelievable’, wife of Chicago firefighter, three children killed in fire at their Montclair home: officials – Chicago Tribune

A mother and her three children died in a fire at a Chicago firefighter’s home in the Montclair neighborhood, officials said Saturday.

The unidentified 2-year-old boy and his 9-year-old sister died recently, earlier Saturday and Friday, respectively, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner.

their mother Summer Day-Stewart, 36, died Thursday and her son, Ezra Stewart, 7, died Wednesday night, the medical examiner’s office said.

The firefighter, Walter Stewart, was on duty and responded to a fire at his home in the 2500 block of North Rutherford Avenue and tried to save his wife with CPR outside the family’s home Tuesday night.

Police previously said the 2-year-old girl was a girl and the 9-year-old was a 7-year-old.

When Stewart heard his own address as the scene of the fire, the Chicago fire chief drove him from a fire station five miles away.

First responders found Day-Stewart and the three children unconscious from smoke inhalation and in critical condition, officials initially said.

A young firefighter performed CPR on his wife outside his burning home, fire department spokesman Larry Langford said earlier.

“It must be hell,” Langford said earlier. “We’re doing everything we can to support him.”

A spokesman for the veteran fire department previously said he had never seen anything like this nightmare scenario in his many years with the department. According to him, the firemen’s houses caught fire. Even fire stations caught fire, he added.

But Langford said he couldn’t recall the department facing such a tragedy.

“As much as I’ve been involved with fires, I can’t understand what he’s going through. It’s just unbelievable. I can’t even imagine what that feels like,” Langford previously said.

The fire started in the home’s kitchen, but its cause is still unknown, Langford said earlier.

The department is raising money to help Stewart’s family cope with an “unspeakable tragedy” through its charity, Ignite the Spirit.

Chicago Tribune reporter Jake Sheridan contributed.