On October 5, 1987, Chicago Fire Department Captain Richard O’Connor of Engine 29 collapsed after climbing ten flights of stairs while responding to a false alarm in a multi-story Chicago Housing Authority project building. The building’s two elevators had been vandalized and were not in operation, leaving the stairs as the only way to reach the upper levels of the building. Paramedics attempted to revive O’Connor on-scene for more than forty minutes before taking him to Michael Reese Hospital where he was pronounced dead from a heart attack.