Benefits of Wickless Candles

Baby Dies 3 Days after Rescue from S.W. Side Fire

Keep your family and home safe by using wickless candles.

Found on Monday December 28, 2009 in the Chicago Sun Times

By Kim Janssen and Becky Schlikerman

Staff reporters

For three and a half days, Mariana Pasteles’ family prayed for her.

But prayers weren’t enough to save the tiny 11-month-old baby.

Rescued from her burning home on the Southwest Side on Christmas Eve, Mariana died from her injuries Sunday afternoon.

“She was like a little angel, so innocent,” said her grandmother Cruz Chavez in Spanish Sunday night.

“God will be with her.”

The blaze, which ripped through her home on the 2800 block of South Sawyer in the Little Village neighborhood Thursday morning, was started by a decorative candle, Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said.

Fire-fighters rescued Mariana and her older sister Gabriela, 3, from a second floor bedroom after her distraught parents were beaten back by smoke.

Both children suffered from smoke inhalation and Mariana was declared death at 1:15 p.m. at Children’s Memorial Hospital.

But Gabriela, who’s being treated at Christ’s Hospital, is in much better shape, Chavez said.

The girls’ father, David, was on his way to see Gabriela when Mariana died, but her mother was with her and a priest gave her the last rites, said Chavez, who previously lost her husband and two of her children.

“The baby won’t be alone,” Chavez said. “I have a lot of family that died and she’ll be with them.”

Becky Schlikerman is a SouthtownStar reporter.