House fire on Chicago's North Side kills 6 siblings

CHICAGO -- Fire swept through a three-bedroom apartment on Chicago's North Side early Sunday, killing six children and injuring their mother and three siblings, authorities said.\nA candle might have caused the fire, officials said.\nThe family had been without electricity for at least a month and had been relying on candles for light, Fire Commissioner Raymond Orozco said.\n"What do you say?" Orozco said. "There's nothing you can say. It's been the worst in a long time. The only thing you can do is just pray for these poor people."\nThe third-floor apartment in the Rogers Park neighborhood had no smoke detectors, he said.\nThe apartment hadn't had electricity since May, said John Dewey, a spokesman for utility Commonwealth Edison. He declined to say why it was turned off, citing confidentiality reasons.\nFive of the dead were identified by the Cook County medical examiner's office as Natalie Ramirez, 16; Eric Ramirez, 12; Suzette Ramirez, 10; Idaly Ramirez, 6; and Kevin Ramirez, 3. Another girl remained unidentified.\nA friend of Natalie Ramirez said that the children's mother was originally from Mexico and that the family had been in the United States for at least 16 years.\n"The community is in shock," a tearful Jasmin Lamb, 16, said as she lay pink and white carnations on the sidewalk near the apartment. "They were a nice, warm family. My friend never got into any trouble."\nThe fire broke out at about 12:20 a.m. on the third floor of a large apartment building, Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said.\nA passer-by noticed smoke coming out of the apartment window and got help, said Cmdr. Will Knight.\n"Then the mother came running out with one child in her arms, screaming to the neighbors that there were other children inside," Knight said. "They asked her how many, and she said eight."\nA neighborhood man rescued one child after running up three flights of stairs and bursting into the apartment, witnesses said.\nWhen firefighters arrived, they saw a child at a third-floor window, Langford said. That child was rescued by ladder.\nOther firefighters went up the stairwell and found the children who died huddled in the apartment's front room, not far from where the fire is believed to have started, Langford said.\nFour children were dead at the scene, officials said. Firefighters tried to resuscitate the victims on the street, then took them to hospitals.\nThe mother and one child were in stable condition at the same hospital, a nursing supervisor said. Another child was dead on arrival at a different hospital, and a third child taken to that hospital died shortly after being transferred to the University of Chicago Hospitals, officials said.\n--Associated Press writer Michael Tarm in Chicago contributed to this report.