Landlord tried to evict tenants before 10 kids died in fire, lawyer says

A 10th child perished Tuesday from injuries he suffered in a tragic fire in Little Village as state officials confirmed they're investigating child neglect allegations and a lawyer for the building owner revealed he tried to evict the woman who rented the unit where the kids died.

Fourteen-year-old Adrian Hernandez died about noon Tuesday at Stroger Hospital, said his aunt, Sheila Reyes. The children killed in the early Sunday fire ranged in age from 3 months to 16 years old. The child death toll matched the highest in a Chicago fire since the infamous Our Lady of the Angels Catholic School fire in 1958, which claimed 92 kids.

Chicago Fire Department investigators were unable to find smoke detectors in the second floor of the coach house that caught fire, officials said. The same unit came under the scrutiny of city inspectors in 2015 for not having smoke detectors, but the problem was fixed, records show.

On July 20, building owner Merced Gutierrez had filed a lawsuit to evict Yolanda Ayala, who lost six of her seven children in the blaze Sunday.

She was refusing to pay rent, according to Gutierrez's lawyer, Raul Serrato. The case was pending.

“He's devastated,” Serrato said of his client. “He feels terrible about this.”

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