High-rise Fires Can Lead to Serious Burn Injuries, Untimely
Death and the Need for a Personal Injury Lawyer
Published by Chicago Personal Injury Attorneys Romanucci & Blandin, LLC
It didn’t have to happen. A young beautiful Chicago woman, Shantel McCoy, was returning home to her 12th floor high-rise apartment when the elevator doors opened and she was blasted by smoke, soot and carbon dioxide. She died at the scene of the fire.
Like others in our community, we read the next day about how her pre-1975 building is exempt from installing sprinklers. If her building had been up to code, she would have heard a building-wide alarm when she entered the main lobby and the building’s elevators would have automatically stopped working.
Instead, the building where she lived isn’t required to install sprinklers or other safety precautions because of the huge expense. In truth, sprinklers have only been required for commercial and residential high-rises built since 1975.
Older buildings, however, are required to choose from a list of generally cheaper safety improvements. But here’s the catch: they don’t have to do so before 2015. The Chicago City Council just voted in December to extend the deadline another three years.
That doesn’t necessarily mean these building owners are off the hook if a tragedy like this one occurs. If you or a loved one should be seriously injured or even die in a high-rise accident, you or your family may have grounds for a lawsuit claiming gross negligence.
Illinois law requires the owners of private and commercial properties, such as stores, shopping malls, parking lots, walkways, stadiums, high-rise apartment buildings, and supermarkets to provide an environment that is safe and secure from hazards and defects. Such unsafe conditions can result in so-called “slip-and-fall” accidents, as well as more serious injuries, including paralysis, traumatic brain injury and wrongful death.
Romanucci & Blandin has extensive experience representing individuals who were severely injured or killed from dangerous conditions to a property and also due to serious burns. If you or family members are victims of this type of accident, we want to be your law firm. We can determine quickly whether you have a case.


Hudson was on his way home from his job as a truck mechanic at the time of the May 2001 collision on the Eisenhower Expressway. He sued the city and Officer Sung Joo Lee, who later was dismissed from the suit. Hudson brought both negligence and willful and wanton conduct counts against the city.







