Parents Who Lost Girls In Fire Remember Night Their Lives Changed

INGLESIDE, IL — In the 20 minutes Teig Prickett went to the gas station to fill up his wife’s car, his life changed forever.

It was late on Dec. 10, and his wife, Katie, had fallen asleep just before he'd left. They’d put their young girls, Autumn Evans, 5, and Elizabeth “Lizzie” Evans, 8, to bed and retreated to their bedroom to check out a Christmas present they’d bought for Lizzie. It had arrived in the mail that day, and they were both excited.

"She was into creative things, and she liked to write stories," Katie told Patch in an interview Sunday. "We got her this kit where she could make her own story, and then it could be sent away to be printed."

"She would've really loved it," Katie said, becoming emotional as she and her husband recalled the night of the fire.

They were excited about the present, and talked about what they still needed to get for Autumn and Cory, their teenage son.

"I fell asleep while I was talking with my husband," Katie said.

That's when Teig decided to drive to the gas station. His wife had to get up early for work the next day, and he didn’t want her to have to get gas in the morning.

Ten minutes later, he got a frantic call from Katie and raced home.

“I woke up to my mom screaming, ‘there’s a fire,’” Katie said. “I didn’t think it was so big. I grabbed my phone, I grabbed my small dog.”

“As soon as I opened my door, I was overcome with smoke,” she continued.

She called Teig and tried to make it downstairs but had to retreat to her room. She got to the window in her bedroom, facing the back of the house. She opened it and noticed her son, whose bedroom also faced the back of the house, had his head out of the window as well.

Their bedrooms shared a wall, and they could see each other; they began to brainstorm ways to get to Lizzie and Autumn. The girls' bedroom was across the hallway from Cory.

Cory, a high school student, is training to become a firefighter and is taking classes at College of Lake County. He soaked T-shirts with water and attempted to get to the girls, who Katie estimated were about 40 feet away from him at the time.

He made three attempts before going back to talk to his mom. They decided it would be best for him to climb out of his window onto a pergola below and attempt to get to the girls from outside.

Katie remained inside. Her feet became very hot from the flames, and the smoke was overpowering. She knew she wouldn't be able to get to the girls room from inside.

She thought to herself, "I can’t do anything to save them inside this room I was in." Teig got back from the gas station shortly before she jumped out the window.

The time from when she first learned of the fire until when she jumped, Katie estimated, was less than five minutes.

Firefighters responded to the blaze at about 10 p.m. and found the two-story home fully engulfed in flames. Katie's dad, Scott, 66, had been sleeping upstairs and got outside safely.

Her mom, Dori, suffered health issues that made it hard for her to walk upstairs. She was sleeping in the downstairs living room, where it's believed the fire started. She tried to make it out through the back door but was overcome by the smoke and flames.

Firefighters were able to save her. But they couldn’t get to the girls. They entered the home several times in attempts to rescue the sisters but were driven back by smoke and flames.

Then, the second floor collapsed.

Once the fire was under control, firefighters found the bodies of one of the girls in a bedroom and the other in a second-floor hallway.

The family's dog, Abby, and cats, Apple and Candace, were killed in the fire.

Everything was destroyed in the blaze. Their digital photos are all they have left of their girls, Teig and Katie said.

“The fire didn’t just take our girls. It took our life, our dreams,” Katie said.

Following the fire, Katie, Dori, Scott and Cory went to Condell Medical Center. Scott, Dori and Katie were then transferred to Loyola Medical Center to receive treatment in their burn unit.

Katie suffered burns to her arms and smoke inhalation. She was released from the hospital three days later. Scott had burns to his arms and legs and damage to his cornea. His sight has been blurry ever since, but it is improving.

Scott has been released from the hospital and is living with a relative. Meanwhile, Dori remains in critical condition in the intensive care unit at Loyola and is on a ventilator. Katie visits her daily.

They are waiting for her condition to improve, and for her to be released from the hospital, before they have a funeral for their girls.

“We need my mom to be there, and I just can’t do that (plan a funeral) right now” she said. “I need to focus on my mom right now.”

For the four years before the fire, Katie, Teig, Cory, Autumn and Lizzie were living with Katie’s parents in the four-bedroom home in Ingleside.

It worked for them, Teig and Katie said.

Now, Katie, Teig and Cory are living in a hotel. Their insurance company is still ruling on the cause, which is believed to be electrical.

Living in a hotel room with two adults and a teen, compared to a home with seven people, including two young girls, is very different, they said.

The quiet has been deafening.

“It’s very hard. Just not hearing the noise … it’s too quiet,” Teig said.

They are grateful for the "overwhelming" outpouring of support from the community. A GoFundMe set up for them has brought in more than $224,000, which will help them replace “the material things.”

Katie’s co-workers at Veterinary Specialists in Buffalo Grove have set up a meal train, so they never have to cook a meal — a task that’s become unbearable for Katie who is used to cooking for seven people every night and having big family dinners around a kitchen table.

“It makes me sad. I don’t even know how to cook for two or three people, it feels weird,” she said.

Everything has changed for their family, and they're just trying to get through each day.

“We just really miss our girls,” Katie said.