ABC 7 Chicago Weekend Watch

Tune in to ABC-7 Saturday morning after 8:30 a.m. to catch the latest Weekend Watch segment where we focus a spotlight on government. Madison Hopkins, will be discussing our latest investigation, The Failure Before the Fires. The Failure Before the Fires explores Chicago’s fatal fires from 2014 through 2019. The Better Government Association and the Chicago Tribune discovered that 61 people died in these buildings the city already knew had dangerous fire hazards. City officials failed to hold property owners accountable. A majority of the victims were Black, and more than one-third were children.

BGA investigative reporter Madison Hopkins and her Tribune’s reporter Cecilia Reyes published a multimedia account of the fires and the broken system of oversight. Shared are facts and findings, visualization of the different tragic fires in Chicago’s history and the paper trail of accountability, and the stories of families and communities forever impacted by the negligence of city officials elected to serve the public.