Four funerals. Four loved ones gone. And a family left trying to make sense of a tragedy that unfolded before sunrise. That is the heartbreaking situation facing relatives of four people killed in a house fire in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood on Thursday, November 5.
The victims were 48-year-old Mariza Garcia Jimenez, her sons, 24-year-old Francisco Vallejo and 13-year-old Valentino Vallejo, and her 69-year-old mother, Maria Jimenez De Garcia. Their family dog also lost its life in the blaze.
The fire broke out around 4:15 a.m. at the family’s townhome in the 7000 block of North Paulina Street. Firefighters and emergency personnel responded, but all four family members were eventually pronounced dead at nearby hospitals after being found unresponsive inside the home.
The tragedy has left relatives facing the difficult task of arranging four burials at once. Vanessa Garcia, one of the victims’ relatives, spoke about the financial burden that comes with such an enormous loss. She described the painful reality of having to think about the cost of four funerals while grieving four members of the same family.
A GoFundMe campaign was organized to help the surviving relatives pay for funeral services, burial arrangements and other related expenses. By Friday evening, the fundraiser had collected approximately $87,000 toward its $140,000 goal. Donations continued to arrive as members of the public learned about the tragedy.
The family was well known in Rogers Park, where relatives said they had built strong relationships with neighbors over many years. Mariza was remembered as someone who enjoyed helping others, caring for neighborhood children and volunteering at St. Jerome’s Catholic Church. She also took part in the annual Special Olympics Polar Plunge to support Francisco.
The youngest victim, Valentino, was an eighth-grade student at Kilmer International Academy. His school community was left grieving his death, with school officials making grief counseling and other support available to students. For his classmates and teachers, the loss of a young student in such circumstances is another painful part of the tragedy.
The family’s dog, a brown four-year-old Labradoodle named Remi, also died in the fire. Neighbors who knew the family said they regularly saw them together and remembered their involvement in neighborhood gatherings and everyday community life.
Investigators have not yet established what caused the fire. Relatives said the home had working smoke detectors, while the Chicago Fire Department continued its investigation. As funeral arrangements are considered and donations come in, the surviving family members are left with the difficult task of saying goodbye to four people who were central to their lives.
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