CHICAGO – Chicago fire officials said Saturday that the department was investigating a blaze that killed a firefighter who had been with the department for more than 30 years.

Memorials were erected outside the damaged home remembering Capt. Herbert Johnson, who Mayor Rahm Emanuel called “a larger than life person.”

Johnson, 54, died late Friday at the University of Chicago emergency room after battling the house fire on Chicago’s South Side. The father of three suffered second- and third-degree burns and officials said it’s possible he was hit by a flashover of flames. Paramedics performed CPR as they carried him out of the
home, fire officials said.