9-Year-Old Boy Dies In Park Forest House Fire

PARK FOREST, IL — A 9-year-old boy died Friday morning after the home where he lived on Sangamon Street in Park Forest caught fire. Fire officials in Park Forest confirmed to boy died after he was taken from the burning building to Franciscan Health in Olympia Fields.

Fire crews responded to the home near Sangamon and Shabbona Drive at 6:25 a.m. and found a 36-year-old woman and 3-year-old girl outside after they "self-rescued," the fire department said in a news release.

The woman told firefighters the 9-year-old boy, who had not been identified as of Friday afternoon, was still inside as the home remained on fire. The crews then began an "aggressive interior attack" and sent in a search crew before finding him. Life support procedures began before an ambulance arrived to take him to the hospital, the fire department said.

Both the woman and young girl were treated for smoke inhalation.

Firefighters were able to put out the fire in 15 minutes. The fire has been ruled an accident.