Man critically injured in high rise fire

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One person was critically injured in an apartment fire at a Lake Shore Drive high rise on Friday night.

Officials called to the fire in the 3400 block of N. Lake Shore Dr., found a fire in an apartment on the sixth floor and had extinguished the flames by 11:40 p.m., Fire Media Affairs Chief Quention Curtis said.

A man was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in critical condition, Curtis said.

“It just went up, said Phyllis Hartt, a neighbor who saw the flames and heard screams from her building across the street and watched as “loads of fire trucks” responded. “You could see that it was a total blaze from that window.”

The fire was confined to just one apartment and no one had to be evacuated from the building, Curtis said.

Even after the fire was put out, dozens of people were lining the street watching the firemen work, Hartt said.

A still-and-box alarm and an EMS Plan I -- which sends at least five ambulances to the location -- was called for the blaze, according to unconfirmed dispatch reports.

Crews are investigating the cause of the fire.