An 18-year-old woman died on Sunday, almost a week after she was rescued from a fire in an illegally modified basement bedroom, the Waukegan Fire Department said.
According to Waukegan Fire Department spokesman Steve Lenzi, the fire occurred at 5:15 p.m. on December 4 at a single-family home in the 1300 block of North Jackson Street, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Firefighters arrived and found heavy smoke coming from the side door of the house which led to the basement. The woman, identified as Alondra Caballero Negron, 18, of Waukegan, was found by firefighters in a basement room that was illegally modified into a bedroom, fire officials said.
She was transported to an area hospital and then later transferred to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois. Negron died on Sunday, and an autopsy was conducted by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office on Wednesday. The medical examiner’s office ruled Negron’s death an accident and said she died from complications of smoke inhalation from the fire.
Heavy smoke left the home uninhabitable, fire officials said. The cause of the fire is under investigation.