Good Samaritan Pays For Hotel For 70 Homeless People During Freezing Temperatures

January 31, 2019

A good Samaritan is paying for hotel rooms for 70 homeless people who were camped out in tents in the freezing cold in downtown Chicago.

Credit: Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune

The offer came after the Chicago Fire Department confiscated nearly 100 propane tanks given the group to keep them warm as temperatures sank to negative 22 degrees. The department was forced to act after one of the tanks exploded.

"When we got there, the fire was extinguished and they found all these propane cylinders. That's when we escalated it to a level 1 hazmat," said Fire Chief Walter Schroeder.

"There was a significant amount of propane there," he added. "And with that many cylinders, that's like a bomb going off."

City officials notified Salvation Army spokeswoman Jacqueline Rachev who began preparations to move people from the camp to their warming center. About an hour later, the city called again and said someone someone had offered to put the residents in a hotel for the rest of the week.

"Isn't that wonderful?" said Rachev. "At least they're warm and they're safe."

Rachev was not sure of the identity of the good Samaritan and only knew the hotel was on the city's South Side.