Fourth child dies in Chicago house
Investigators believe blaze was arson; no sign of parents
CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- A house fire killed four children Friday night on Chicago's West Side. Investigators described the blaze as suspicious, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.
Fire officials were unable immediately to locate any parents at the scene, Langford said.
The front of the one-and-a-half story house was completely in flames when firefighters arrived, but a team of rescuers entered through the rear, Langford said.
They found a boy -- believed to be 14-years-old -- in "bad shape" at the base of a set of stairs. He was taken to a hospital but later died, Langford said.
Three other children -- also thought to be in their early teens -- were dead upstairs in an attic bedroom when rescuers reached them, Langford said.
Chicago arson investigators were on the scene early Saturday because there "may be something suspicious about the fire," Langford said.
The children have not been identified and it is not immediately clear how they may have been related.
Although a "distraught adult" arrived on the scene as the bodies of the children were being removed from the house, police have not yet located any parents, he said.
The two-alarm blaze was called into the fire dispatcher at 11:25 p.m. (12:25 a.m. ET.)
