NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 34

Perspectives
BUILDING SAFETY
'BREAKDOWNS
AT EVERY POINT'
JOURNALISTS MADISON HOPKINS AND CECILIA
REYES WERE RECENTLY AWARDED A PULITZER PRIZE
FOR THEIR INVESTIGATIVE SERIES THAT REVEALED
DANGEROUS SYSTEMIC FLAWS IN HOW CHICAGO
HANDLES BUILDING CODE ENFORCEMENT. NOW THEY
WANT TO SEE CHANGES THAT PROTECT RESIDENTS
AND IMPROVE THE CITY'S ENFORCEMENT PROCESS.
Interview conducted and edited by Jesse Roman

Mourners built an
impromptu memorial
in front of the
house in the Little
Village neighborhood
of Chicago
where 10 children
died in a 2018 fire.
The fire was one of
the catalysts that
drove journalists
Hopkins and Reyes
to begin investigating
Chicago's
building enforcement
practices.
A
few hours before dawn on
September 8, 2014, Shamaya
Coleman faced an unimaginable
situation. Thick, black smoke from a
fire in the vacant apartment below
had blocked both exits in the third-floor apartment
that Coleman shared with her boyfriend
and four young children on Chicago's South Side.
The desperate family huddled in a back bedroom,
gasping for air as conditions rapidly deteriorated
around them. The only way out was through the
window, three stories above the street.
" As she climbed out on the window sill screaming
for help, she told us that she just lost it and
34 | NFPA JOURNAL * FALL 2022
jumped, " said Cecilia Reyes,
a former reporter with the
Chicago Tribune who has
interviewed Coleman multiple
times since the fire.
Coleman broke all four
limbs in the fall. When firefighters
arrived soon after,
she yelled to them that
her kids were inside, but it
was too late. All four children,
ages 7 to 15, were
later found dead. Coleman's
boyfriend, who also jumped,
survived.
Years later, the reporting of Reyes and fellow
journalist Madison Hopkins revealed that the fire
that killed Coleman's children is part of a troubling
pattern in Chicago, one where city officials
are aware of significant building code violations
yet fail to force landlords to act in time to
prevent deadly fires.
At the 18-unit apartment building where
Coleman lived, for instance, Reyes and Hopkins
AP/WIDE WORLD

NFPA Journal - Fall 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - Fall 2022

Contents
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - Cover1
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - Cover2
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 1
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - Contents
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 3
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 4
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 5
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 6
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 7
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 8
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 9
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 10
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 11
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 12
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 13
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 14
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 15
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 16
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 17
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NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 19
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 20
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NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 24
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NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 26
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 27
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 28
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NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 30
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 31
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NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 33
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 34
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 35
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 36
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 37
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 38
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NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - 49
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NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - Cover3
NFPA Journal - Fall 2022 - Cover4
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