Authorities: Boy who died in Chicago fire was left alone

CHICAGO – Authorities say a 3-year-old boy who died in a suspicious fire on the city’s South Side had been left alone inside a locked apartment as the blaze occurred.

Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford says Maqkwone Jones was in the foster care of an aunt when the fire broke out Sunday at a multi-unit building.

Police and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services say the aunt was not home at the time, but a friend was sleeping at the apartment. A DCFS official, Neil Skene, says the woman didn’t realize the boy was home and fled the building during the fire.

The boy suffered cardiac arrest at the scene and was taken to a hospital, where he later died.

Skene says DCFS is investigating the boy’s death.