Grandmother killed, 12-year-old girl injured in Molotov cocktail fire in Chicago

CHICAGO (CBS)– A grandmother is dead and her 12-year-old granddaughter is recovering after a fire raged through their Bridgeport home. Police say someone deliberately set the fire. Then two boys rushed to help before firefighters arrived.

Police said that shortly before 2:30 a.m., a man threw a Molotov cocktail through the window of a townhouse in the 3100 block of South Green Street. He was then seen running north down the alley, dressed in black.

Cleanup was underway Saturday afternoon as neighbors mourned the loss of 54-year-old Charnette Walker.

“I have never seen a fire this bad in all my years of life,” Shareia Raymey said. “It's terrible. It's engulfed everything. Everything in this house is completely burned, burned, just burned. We are devastated. We are heartbroken. She was with her granddaughter by her side. Take good care of this baby. ”

Raymey is a neighbor; Saturday afternoon, she had been up since the fire.

“Woe to you who commit such a heinous crime against a mother and her granddaughter who have done nothing but serve our community,” she said.

Nova Miles and Jayshawn Owens live next door and jumped into action when they smelled smoke.

“He saw him and he ran to the police station for help,” Owens said.

Before the firefighters arrived at 2:26 p.m., four minutes after the call, the two boys kicked the door down.

“We tried to help the grandmother,” Owens said. “We told her to jump. She doesn't want to jump. So she said, 'Go get my grandbaby from the back.'”

“So we ran to the back, and we climbed through the doors, and we went up on the roof to climb out the window. But when we got in there, there was so much smoke we could I’m not even breathing,” Miles said.

They rescued the 12-year-old girl through a second-floor bathroom window, but her grandmother died.

“We're grateful that we're not mourning the lives of two people, but only mourning the lives of one. But even still, it's devastating,” Raymey said.

As charred objects covered the front yard Saturday, all neighbors could do was think of the friendly waves that no longer exist.

“We love you,” Raymey said. “We are so sorry you had to endure this. We send our deepest condolences to this family on this day because no one knew we would wake up to this nightmare.”

The 54-year-old woman's name had not been officially released by the Cook County medical examiner's office as of Saturday afternoon.

The 12-year-old girl is expected to recover.

No one is in custody.