Officials continue probe into fatal Prospect Heights fire

Investigators from the state fire marshal's office Monday sifted through the burned home at 202 S. Maple Lane in Prospect Heights, looking for clues as to what started the middle-of-the-night fire Saturday that killed 3-year-old Alex Jedd and seriously injured his father, Mark Jedd, and his 11-month-old sister, Rhianna.

Mark and Rhianna Jedd remained hospitalized Monday at the Loyola University Health System Burn Center in Maywood, where a family member said they are in critical condition and suffering from infections.

Hospital officials declined to release any information about the father and daughter Monday.

It could take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks until the cause of the fire is found, said Prospect Heights Fire Protection District Chief Donald Gould.

"Until we can absolutely positively say, 'This is it,' we're going to keep our mouths shut," Gould said. "We don't want to give out bad information."

Prospect Heights police are also involved in the investigation, but all Police Chief Bruce Morris would say Monday is they "are treating it as an accidental fire."

The 911 call came in at 3:24 a.m. Saturday. Firefighters were dispatched at 3:25 a.m., were en route at 3:27 a.m. and arrived at the scene with tanker and ladder trucks at 3:30 a.m., Gould said.

The tanker truck, which contained just under 4,000 gallons of water, was the first vehicle to arrive on the scene, Gould said. It took about 1,000 gallons of water to extinguish the fire, so even though neighboring fire departments brought extra water to the scene - the neighborhood does not have fire hydrants - Gould said the extra water wasn't needed. The fire was under control in 15 minutes, reports said.

Mark Jedd suffered severe burns while rescuing his infant daughter and tried to run back into the house to find Alex, whom a family member said was found hiding in the bathroom, probably because he was scared. He did not have any burns on his body but died of smoke inhalation, said Alex's great-aunt, Geordi Smith.

Mark's wife, Brittany Jedd, does not live in the house and was not there when the fire broke out. Smith said Brittnay Jedd feels a tremendous amount of guilt that she wasn't there when the tragedy occurred.

While fire officials said access to water wasn't an issue, Harriet Feigen, Alex Jedd's great-grandmother, said she believes that if the neighborhood had fire hydrants, Alex might be alive today. She said she wants to fight for fire hydrants in all areas that don't have them.

"It might save someone else's life," said Feigen, a Northbrook resident.

Fire hydrants are a controversial topic in Prospect Heights. Parts of the village are on private wells and don't have fire hydrants, while other parts of the village have paid for the installation of Lake Michigan water - which requires the installation of a fire hydrant every 300 feet.

A citywide effort to bring Lake Michigan water to the village was voted down twice in referendums in the past decade, City Administrator Pam Arrigoni said.

"This has been a topic of conversation in this town for years," Arrigoni said. "People fight against it because they don't want to pay for it. - It's not cheap."