Associated Press
CHICAGO — A Chicago firefighter/paramedic died early Monday after falling two stories down an elevator shaft while fighting a smoky blaze in a warehouse on the city’s South Side.
Firefighter Daniel Capuano, 42, was searching for the source of the blaze on the second floor, but he couldn’t see because of heavy smoke and fell down the shaft to the basement, Chicago Fire Department Commissioner Jose Santiago said.
“As the firefighters went in there they saw some holes throughout the floor,” Santiago said. “They gave out an emergency alert, ‘Be careful.’ It looks like Firefighter Daniel had just walked into the elevator shaft as he was searching, couldn’t see and fell.”
Other firefighters quickly reached Capuano, a father of three, and got him to an ambulance, Santiago said. Capuano was pronounced dead at 4:25 a.m. at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
The 15-year veteran was assigned to Tower Ladder 34 and previously worked as a firefighter in suburban Evergreen Park.
“This is devastating to the family,” Santiago said.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.