10-Year-Old Boy Saves Family from Oak Park Apartment Fire

Ramsey Family Photo via gofundme. 

An Oak Park fire Tuesday night roared through the homes of two families, but it could have ended in tragedy if not for a quick-thinking 10-year-old boy who noticed the fire and prompted an evacuation.

Jaylen Billups, a student at Irving Elementary School, was playing a video game in his family’s second-floor apartment at 1426 N. Austin Boulevard when he heard the smoke detector’s alarm and saw a fire in the living room, OakPark.com reported.

Jaylen’s aunt, Corey Ramsey, told the news site that Jaylen’s father was in the shower when Jaylen went to tell him about the fire. OakPark.com reported that the family grabbed Jaylen’s sleeping two-year-old sister and escaped the building before flames burst from the windows.

Oak Park Fire Department Lt. Kevin Fadden said the first units were on the scene at 7:07 p.m.

Fadden said there were no injuries, though the fire severely burned the second floor apartment and smoke and water also left the first floor damaged.

Oak Park communications director David Powers said the building had been evacuated before firefighters reached the scene, which helped them extinguish the blaze quickly, within about half an hour.

“Typically the first thing they’re thinking is rescue, but by the time they arrived on the scene everyone had gotten out, and they knew they didn’t have to go into rescue mode,” Powers said.

Powers said preliminary findings faulted an overloaded extension cord positioned near a live Christmas tree for the fire. Powers said the fire seemed to spread to a nearby couch, which “burned hot and fast.”

The Red Cross helped both families find temporary accommodations.

Oak Park Elementary School District 97 has been communicating with both families to collect donations.

A statement from Chris Jasculca, senior director of Policy, Planning and Communication for D97, said the family connected to Hatch Elementary School “has asked people to hold off on making additional donations until they can assess what they have received and determine what they might need going forward.”

Jaylen’s family is accepting online donations through GoFundMe.

“Both of the families, as well as our schools and the district, greatly appreciate the overwhelming kindness, compassion and generosity that have been displayed by the community following the call for donations,” Jasculca said in the statement.

Both floors of the building had been evacuated when emergency responders arrived, allowing firefighters to extinguish the blaze quickly.