Man and woman die in apartment fire in Old Irving Park

by CYRYL JAKUBOWSKI

A man and a woman died in a fire at about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 8, at a home in the 3600 block of North Kedvale Avenue, according to Chicago Fire Media Affairs.

Firefighters responded to a still-and-box alarm on Kedvale and discovered that two people were deceased in the first floor apartment, according to media affairs.

Chicago Fire Media Affairs director Larry Langford said that a 70-year-old man and an 88-year-old woman were found deceased in the building.

Langford said that the mom and son have been living in the home without heat and that they were using space heaters. He said that the furnace had been broken “for years.”

Langford said that the home had no smoke detectors and that other tenants in the building moved out. The likely cause of the fire is “careless use of smoking materials,” according to media affairs.

“There was also a lot of debris which was a hoarding situation,” Langford said. He said firefighters had difficulty moving around in the unit as they battled the fire.

The man and the woman were identified by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office as Michael Frieri and his mother, Marian Frieri.

Alderman James Gardiner (45th), firefighters and officials visited several homes on the block on Tuesday morning to give out smoke detectors.