Excerpts from WGNTV.com:

Three people were injured in an extra alarm fire Sunday morning on Chicago’s West Side, leaving a long-time resident looking for a place to live as authorities investigate the cause. Two people suffered smoke inhalation, and another was treated for exposure to the extreme cold Sunday morning.

Patrice Ammons said she did lose a lot in the fire that destroyed her West Side home of 20 years – but not everything. For one, she had gratitude for the firefighters who saved her.

“You can replace material things, but you can’t get your life back, and all of us are safe because of them,” Ammons said. “I really want to tell the firemen thank you, I got my brother out, and I couldn’t get back. That fireman did not hesitate, he took off his cap, he went in blind and I wish I knew who he was, so that I could say thank you.”

Ammons said sometime between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. Sunday, her brother told her something was burning. The back of the two story building was in flames, which ripped through the roof, and engulfed the whole back wall.

The fire had escalated to two alarms –at the time temperatures in the city were hovering around zero degrees. Eventually more than 100 firefighters responded.

Patrice Ammons lost her home and most of what she owns, you can’t control the circumstances, she says, but you can control your attitude.

thanks Dan

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