Updated: 3:15 p.m., 01/09/09

A grandfather is dead and two of his grandchildren are in intensive care at Loyola University Medical Center, victims of a house fire on Thursday, Jan. 8 in Brookfield.


Brookfield police received a 911 call from someone at

3526 Park Ave.
just after


“A gentleman was screaming for help,” said Police Chief Steven Stelter. “He was panic-stricken.”


Andrew Hansen, a resident of

Vernon Avenue
, said he got to the scene just before   “Firefighters were breaking out the windows and I noticed they brought out the man and were doing CPR on him,” Hansen said. “Then they put him on the ambulance.”


Stelter confirmed that 71-year-old Henry Allison was pronounced dead at Loyola. His two grandchildren, 4-month-old Lylian Robinson and 4-year-old Calvin Robinson remained in critical condition in Loyola’s intensive care unit as of Friday, according to hospital spokeswoman Anne Dillon.


A third child, a 10-year-old boy, and the children’s parents were not at home when the fire broke out.


Fire Chief Patrick Lenzi could not confirm the cause of the fire, but said that it appeared to originate in a first-floor bedroom in the southwest corner of the brown brick bungalow. One unconfirmed report indicated that an electrical malfunction may have sparked the fire.


More than a dozen fire trucks and ambulances responded from a slew of suburban agencies, including Riverside, Lyons, LaGrange, McCook, Pleasantview, Westmont and Oak Brook.