Excerpts from ab7chicago.com:

Six people, including two children and a firefighter, were transported to hospitals after an extra-alarm fire in the South Shore neighborhood Friday morning.

Calls for help first began around 6:30 a.m. when some residents of a three-story building in the 7900-block of South Phillips Avenue were awakened by the warnings of working smoke detectors, thick black smoke and the smell of fire.

The fire was struck by about 8 a.m.

Fire officials said the fire appears to have started in the second floor and is suspicious in nature and that it may have been deliberately set and the result of some sort of argument.

Twenty four residents were rescued by ladder. Several residents including two children, were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation, in addition to a firefighter.

“One of our members became disoriented, so it was elevated to a 3-11 alarm. He was immediately found and taken for observation,” said deputy fire commissioner Richard Ford III.

Tags: Chicago Fire Department, Chicago Firefighters rescue dozens via ladders from burning apartment building, one firefighter and several residents taken to area hospitals after Chicago apartment building fire