Photo: The abandoned Sing Way Laundry on E. 75th Street, scene of a fire on last year that killed two Chicago firefighters, including Edward Stringer (inset). The daughter of a Chicago firefighter is suing the owners of a foreclosed South Shore laundromat, alleging their failure to properly maintain the building resulted in her father’s death last year.
Jennifer Stringer, daughter of Edward Stringer, filed a wrongful death lawsuit today against Chuck M. Dai and Richard Dai, owners of Sing Way Cleaners in the 1700 block East 75th Street.
Edward Stringer, 47, was among the firefighters dispatched to a fire at the abandoned building on Dec. 22. As some of the firefighters went inside to put the fire out, others cut holes in the roof to ventilate the building. The roof suddenly collapsed, killing Stringer and Corey Ankum, 34, and injuring 19 others.
The lawsuit notes that Stringer’s death certificate lists his cause of death as “compressional asphyxia from a roof collapse.”
Records indicate the city had cited the owners for 14 separate violations, but the building was never repaired and homeless people often sought shelter there.
The suit comes about one month after the Tribune disclosed that a federal report concluded that the failure of the Chicago Fire Department to implement certain safety precautions also contributed to the firefighters’ deaths.
The report from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, released in July, found that poor communications, an insufficient number of radios and the lack of a system to alert the Fire Department of hazardous buildings put the firefighters at risk.
Neither the Chicago Fire Department nor the city of Chicago is named as a defendant.
