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House fire leaves 7-month-old dead, father critically injured the day after his wedding

Posted at 10:51 AM, Sep 24, 2018
and last updated 2018-09-24 10:51:25-04

CHICAGO, Ill. – A West Englewood, Illinois house fire left a 7-month-old boy dead and his father critically injured, just a day after the 51-year-old man celebrated his own wedding.

Shortly before 2 a.m. Sunday, Chicago police patrolling West Englewood saw smoke coming out of a single-family home in the 1700 block of west 59th Street, across the street from Hermitage Park.

“As we looked inside we could see it was quite a chaotic scene the house went up very quickly,” said Ald. Raymond Lopez (D-15th Ward).

After first responders arrived on the scene, they entered the building and rescued 7-month-old Treshun Estes, his mother, and six other children between the ages of one and 17. Treshun was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:30 a.m. Sunday. His mother and the other children were uninjured.

“I was just holding that baby yesterday with their sister Paris when I heard what happened; that’s so sad, I was just with them yesterday,” neighbor Keyanna Stevenson said.

A 51-year-old man later identified as the baby’s father Samuel Estes attempted to escape the fire by jumping out a window, and was critically injured. He was listed in critical condition at University of Chicago Hospital as of Sunday night. Estes was married just a day before, and many family members were still in town after the wedding.

Sylvia White says she saw her grandson Treshun just yesterday, kissing him goodbye after the family celebration.

“This was a beautiful wedding yesterday my daughter had, and now I have to bury my grandson,” White said.

Fire officials believe the blaze was accidentally started in the kitchen on the stove, and the house did not have working smoke detectors.

After the fire, firefighters and city officials went door-to-door in the devastated community, handing out smoke detectors and warning others of fire safety.

“It’s absolutely tragic. It doesn’t have to happen. If you just had working smoke detectors in your house and good batteries it would save so many more lives,” CFD Deputy District Chief Jeffrey Horan said.

Meanwhile, the baby`s family continues to grieve and rely on each other for support in the wake of this tragedy. A GoFundMe page was created to help the family as well.