Shantel McCoy Killed In Lakeview High-Rise Fire: Unknowingly Took Elevator To Her Death (VIDEO)

A woman returning to her North Side apartment was killed Sunday morning when she took the elevator to her floor -- not knowing that a fire was raging in the hallway outside her unit.

Shanel McCoy, 32, was "hit with a superheated blast" when elevator doors opened on the 12th floor of 3130 N. Lake Shore Dr. about 2 a.m. Sunday, Fox Chicago reports. McCoy, a marketing executive who moved to Chicago less than a year ago, was found dead in the elevator by firefighters responding to the scene.

NBC Chicago reports that a fire broke out on the 12th floor of the building around 2 a.m., and when a man and a woman living on the floor escaped with their dog, they left their front door open.

"If the fire is in your apartment, we tell people to get out and close the door. Each unit is a compartment to itself," Chicago Fire Department Chief Joe Roccasalva told NBC. "... The door to the apartment where the fire started was not closed, and the super-heated toxic gasses all got into the hallway there. The heat in there is probably 1,500 to 2,000 degrees at the ceiling. And if she was standing in the elevator, she probably got it full, right on."

If the door had been closed, McCoy likely would have survived.

Nine other people, including two firefighters, were injured in the blaze, the cause of which is being investigated.

“She's my only daughter and I have one son so we were very close," McCoy's devastated mother told Fox Chicago Sunday. "I spoke to her yesterday evening and I asked her are you home and she said mom I do rest sometimes... but the last communication we had was 9:00 last night.”

The Chicago Tribune reports that older Chicago buildings are not required to have sprinkler systems in their hallways, and the city council recently passed an extension allowing building owners to implement safety upgrades later this month.

Comments

[pooka2077]

08:55 AM on 01/12/2012

Aren't the elevators supposed to be locked down during a fire?

[rewith85man]

12:03 AM on 01/12/2012

This incident should be on #1000WaystoDie. #Spike

[Muttslikeme]

12:50 PM on 01/11/2012

NIFSAB High Rise Press Release1/10/2012Contact: Tom Lia, cell [phone]
Latest Fire Fatality Proves that Thousands of Chicago Residents Are Not Safe From High Rise Fires
Orland Park, Ill. (January 9, 2012) — According to the Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board (NIFSAB), the high-rise fire that killed one resident and injured nine others including two firefighters Sunday morning, It requires all residential high-rise buildings built prior to 1975 that do not have fire sprinklers to pass a City of Chicago Life-Safety Evaluation.
“If the high-rise building at 3130 N. Lake Shore Drive would have been retrofit with a fire sprinkler system, the fire would have been controlled or put out in the room of origin,” Lia said. “The 32-year old woman who died would still be alive,
Proof that Chicago’s LSE does fall short was a fire December 10, 2009 on the thirty-sixth floor of the building at 260 East Chestnut that claimed the life of an 84-year-old woman. Prior to the fire, that building passed the City of Chicago LSE.
Lia said the City of Chicago needs to enforce the ordinance. Records show that 76% of the buildings that did file their LSE plans failed to achieve the standards set forth by the Department of Buildings. No buildings have been fined for non-compliance. As of December 2009, the City failed to collect nearly $23 million in potential fines.
http://www.sprinklerfitterchicago.org/viewarticle.asp?a=10630

[John Weymouth]

06:39 AM on 01/11/2012

Rest in peace!

[rewith85man]

12:04 AM on 01/12/2012

It is truly sad that innocent people like her are dead and gone forever.

I know that we will see them again in the afterlife.

[igaccek]

06:07 AM on 01/11/2012

I am a fire inspector. Elevators are not supposed to be able to open on the floor of a fire as the smoke detector outside the elevator should have been sounding. Not only did this building NOT have the newly required sprinkler system but it apparently didn't have a working fire alarm system. When the smoke detector on that floor sensed smoke the elevator would have dropped to the first floor and stayed there. That is why firefighters need an elevator key to move the elevator. The elevator would have then stopped on the floor above or below the fire. This family needs a good lawyer.

[pooka2077]

08:56 AM on 01/12/2012

I should have read your post before I wrote my question. Thank you.

[Brummy]

04:49 PM on 01/13/2012

Igaccek is right. Citizens and firefighters have died in hte past from buildings without proper elevator recall. Does the Chicago Fire Department Inspect the buildings? Who inspects the elevators.

[Aaron Peeples]

10:21 PM on 01/10/2012

Such a sad story. And what an oddly-phrased title. Of course it was unknowingly. If she knew, she probably wouldn't have gotten in the elevator. That's such a weird way to put it. If a guy dies in a car accident, you don't say he "unknowingly drove to his death." That kind of thing goes without saying.

[StephenJK]

07:12 AM on 01/11/2012

Yeah, it's like that bungee jumper that just perished due to the cord snapping....

"Bungee jumper unkowningly leaps to his death after faulty bungee cord snaps."

DUH!

[doctor4kids]

08:41 PM on 01/10/2012

So sad! The young woman in the picture looks so happy and confident. RIP and condolences to her family and friends.

[CWAVvolunteer]

07:51 PM on 01/10/2012

So, so tragic. RIP Shantel. Too many questions unanswered.

[Spagirl65]

05:38 PM on 01/10/2012

How sad. RIP Shantel. My condolences to her family. I couldn't imaging losing someone this way. I hope that her death was instant, and she didn't suffer.

[Lori Pannetta Agnello]

04:53 PM on 01/10/2012

RIP Shanel. What a sad and horrific story. In this day and age every buidling should have a sprinkler system. What I would like to know is why did no one stop her from going in the elevator? Were there no alarms sounding to warn residents of the buidling? What about others living on the same floor? Many, many questions unanswered.

[12Purple]

02:30 PM on 01/10/2012

this would have never happened if the City of Chicago fire codes required that mulriple-occupancy buildings built pre-1974 have to be brought up to existing fire codes.

RIP young lady.

[JubieJewels]

02:16 PM on 01/10/2012

Good GRIEF!!
Bless her heart~

[babby201]

01:57 PM on 01/10/2012

there should be safety standards for elevators that would prevent the doors opening on floors where temperatures go over a safe limit.
I remember a fire in NYC ,on fifth ave in a new building, the elevator call buttons where heat sensitive, like the touch controls on IPads.
so when the elevator full of people from the upper floors got to the level of the fire , the doors opened. Had it passed that floor , they would have survived.
no one factored in Fire when designing that elevator system with heat sensitive call buttons

[Rhyanna DeTuathana]

01:50 PM on 01/10/2012

Why can't elevators automatically lock when there is a fire? All it would take besides programming a couple sensors.

[mondialcorp2007]

11:01 PM on 01/10/2012

Most do in major cities.

[anilimili]

01:26 PM on 01/10/2012

What a tragedy! I'm sorry for the loss for this woman's family.
The people who escaped and didn't close their door may have been in panic, and didn't realize that they ought to do so--there's a lot of fire awareness in schools and about evacuation routes and drills, but I don't know that there's enough of the 'close the door!' drills. Anytime there's a fire, closing the door will slow the progress AND prevent contribution of wind-tunnels of air that can acutally make the fire worse.