According to the Cook County medical examiner’s office, autopsies have determined the exact causes of death for two Chicago firemen who perished this week while putting out flames on the Far South and Near North Sides.
While attempting to extinguish an additional alarm fire in the 12000 block of South Wallace Avenue, Jermaine Pelt, 49, passed away early on Tuesday.
He died of carbon monoxide intoxication brought on by smoke and soot inhalation, according to the postmortem results made public on Wednesday, according to the medical examiner’s office.
CBS Chicago posted a tweet and confirms the news of two firefighters who were dead:
TONIGHT ON THE CBS 2 NEWS AT 10: Two Chicago firefighters lost their lives within two days in the line of duty. Tonight, we learn more about the brave men who died serving the City of Chicago. @JermontTerry reports, at 10. pic.twitter.com/0ZfDLR5I6D
— CBS Chicago (@cbschicago) April 6, 2023
Pelt began working for the Chicago Fire Department in 2005 and has spent his whole career there, according to Chicago Fire Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt.
As he led his 28-year-old daughter down the aisle in November, Pelt’s father, John Pelt, said it was a proud moment for his son.
He said that when the tragedy occurred, the newlyweds had postponed their honeymoon and were just about to depart for Jamaica.
“I would call him a hero. He’s my hero,” John Pelt said. “Right now I’m not feeling that great.”
A Chicago Fire Department lieutenant perished combating an extra-alarm fire in a high-rise structure in the Gold Coast district only one day after Pelt’s passing.
According to fire authorities, Lt. Jan Tchoryk passed out in an 11th-story stairway on his route to a fire on the 27th floor of an apartment building in the 1200 block of North Lake Shore Drive. The medical examiner’s office ruled that hypertensive-arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease was the cause of his death.
Nance-Holt cited Tchoryk as a veteran of the Navy who enjoyed the outdoors and participated in Desert Storm. One son of Tchoryk’s large family just enlisted in the Chicago Police Department.
The back-to-back disasters said Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday, were “unprecedented.”
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