The funeral for Chicago firefighter Jermaine Pelt, who died in the line of duty April 4, will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at House of Hope, 752 E. 114th St., in the Pullman neighborhood.
Pelt, 49, died responding to a house fire in the West Pullman neighborhood. He joined the Chicago Fire Department in 2005 and was based on the South Side his entire career, Chicago Fire Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt said.
Pelt was a registered nurse, a paramedic and an instructor at the fire academy. His fellow firefighters remembered him as “the kindest person” at work and a great firehouse cook.
He celebrated a birthday in March, the marriage of his 28-year-old daughter last November and had a son who is 6 years old.
Firefighter Jermaine Pelt
Chicago Fire Department
Pelt was part of the crews that responded to a house fire in the 12000 block of South Wallace Street in the early hours of April 4. The blaze eventually spread to three buildings, Nance-Holt told reporters.
Pelt was dousing the fire with a hose from the second floor of a neighboring building when that structure also caught fire.
Pelt was working alongside a lieutenant when the two received an order to evacuate the building.
“His partner started to leave and thought [Pelt] was right behind him. When they realized that he went down, a mayday was called,” fire spokesman Larry Langford said.
Nance-Holt said Pelt was quickly found, brought out for treatment and taken to Christ Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy found Pelt died of smoke inhalation, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.
The visitation for Pelt was held Thursday at Blake-Lamb Funeral Home in suburban Oak Lawn.
He was one of two Chicago firefighters who died while fighting blazes last week. Jan Tchoryk, a lieutenant, died a day after Pelt as he helped fight a high-rise fire in the Gold Coast neighborhood.
Hundreds attended Tchoryk’s funeral service, which was held Thursday at St. Joseph the Betrothed Ukrainian Catholic Church in Chicago.
Firefighters arrive to pay their respects to firefighter Jermaine Pelt. Colleagues said Pelt was kind and a great firehouse cook.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Michael Loria is a staff reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South Side and West Side.