Wedding day fire destroys Chicago couple's apartment

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A Chicago couple was preparing for the ceremony on their wedding day when their apartment caught on fire.

Twenty-eight-year-old Andrew Taylor read a love letter he wrote to his bride on Friday, the day of their wedding and the same day their home on the city's West Side burned down.

"Holding your hand the world folds up into a tiny little envelope that I can put in my pocket for another time," he reads. "I'm ready for forever with you and I can't wait for forever with you," he said.

The letter was one of the only things the fire marshal was able to save, along with their marriage certificate.

"I can't believe it," Taylor said. "I don't know how it happened. I have no idea."

On Friday afternoon flames and smoke billowed out of a commercial building in the 100-block of North Campbell. The building housed several artists like the Taylors, who lost everything.

Taylor said he went to take his dog Dharma for a walk when he saw smoke in the second floor hall. When he got out, he doubled back to the apartment for his tuxedo.

"It probably wasn't the safest thing, but I was getting married and my tux is up there. I gotta get it," he said.

Taylor also knocked on his neighbor's doors. No one was hurt.

Meanwhile, Dayleen was getting ready for her wedding at a nearby hotel. She learned about the fire through a phone call, but decided that her wedding night was going to be joyful as the couple was surrounded by friends and family.

"The only way that such a horrible thing could be overcome, I would say, would be by something that would be so happy," she said.

Their wedding rings may be lost forever, but support from loved ones keeps pouring in, something a fire can't destroy.

The Taylors said there is a GoFundMe page that will benefit all of the 15-20 residents in the building.

For more information: http://www.gofundme.com/2j9s7zev9s