Firefighter Record

Incident Summary

On November 13, 2023, Chicago Fire Department Firefighter Andrew Price died in the line of duty while fighting a fire in a four-story building on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago.

In the early morning of November 13, 2023, the Chicago Fire Department responded to a report of a fire in the 2400 block of Lincoln Avenue in a four-story building that contained a restaurant and bar on the ground floor and apartments on the upper floors. Firefighters were sent to the rooftop to assist in vertical ventilation by cutting holes in the roof. Firefighter Price was a part of the rooftop group.

While operating on the building’s roof, Firefighter Price fell down a light/air shaft measuring 9.5 feet by 5 feet that had been uncovered by firefighters to aid in ventilation. He fell 54 feet through the shaft and landed in a dry well that extended 8 feet below the level of the first floor and measured 5 feet by 5 feet . It was at this point that mayday was called. Firefighters struggled to reach Price after he had fallen, but crews were eventually able to reach him by breaking through a wall into the light/air shaft at the first floor level and lifting him 8 feet from the bottom of the dry well. He was immediately treated before being transferred to Illinois Masonic Medical Center in very critical condition. Firefighter Price would succumb to his injuries at the hospital. Funeral services for Price were held at the Navy Pier Grand Ballroom.

Price, a 14-year veteran of the Chicago Fire Department, was survived by his widow.

Citations:

“Andrew ‘Drew’ Benjamin Price,” U.S. Fire Administration, Oct. 10, 2024.

“Career firefighter dies after falling into a light/air shaft during a fire in a four-story mixed occupancy structure-Illinois,” NIOSH Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program, Report F2023-12, March 2025.