A Chicago firefighter died early Monday after falling two stories down an elevator shaft while fighting a smoky blaze in a warehouse on the city's South Side. Firefighter Daniel Capuano, 42, was searching for the source of the blaze on the second floor, but he couldn't see because of heavy smoke and fell down the shaft to the basement, Chicago Fire Department Commissioner Jose Santiago said. "As the firefighters went in there they saw some holes throughout the floor," Santiago said. "They gave out an emergency alert, 'Be careful.' It looks like Firefighter Daniel had just walked into the elevator shaft as he was searching, couldn't see, and fell."
Other firefighters quickly reached Capuano, a father of three, and got him to an ambulance, Santiago said. Capuano was pronounced dead at 4:25am at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement that Capuano, a 15-year veteran, made the "ultimate sacrifice" to protect the safety of others. Chicago firefighters and police officers lined the streets in rainy weather later Monday morning outside the Cook County medical examiner's office as a procession brought Capuano's body from the hospital. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. (More Chicago stories.)
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