Authorities identify Mt. Prospect fire victim

A Mount Prospect woman who died early Saturday morning after a fire in the first-floor apartment of a three-story building has been identified.

According to the Cook County medical examiner’s office, the woman was 69-year-old Kathleen Marrs.

Mount Prospect firefighters responding to the fire about 5:40 a.m. Saturday found smoke in a building at The Colony Apartments on the 2300 block of South Cannon Drive, officials said.

Firefighters got into the first-floor unit through the front door and broke a window to ventilate as they put out the fire. The victim was found in the apartment just inside the front door, Fire Chief John Malcolm said.

The victim’s son and daughter were at the scene Saturday morning but declined to comment.

Neighbor Debalina Datta said she lives in the apartment just above the Marrs’ and called 911 after her mother woke her and her father to alert them that their unit was full of smoke.

“She woke up choking; there was smoke everywhere,” said Datta, adding her smoke detector didn’t go off. “We checked all our electric things, but nothing was on fire. Then I called 911.”

Residents of three of the building’s 12 apartments were temporarily displaced as investigators examined the scene, Malcolm said.

Investigation of the fire has been turned over to the Mount Prospect Police Department and the Office of the State Fire Marshal. Building damage was estimated at $50,000.

Ÿ Staff writer Steve Zalusky contributed to this story