A firefighter was killed and another suffered minor injuries early Tuesday while working to put out an extra-alarm fire in the West Pullman neighborhood.

Crews responded to the house fire about 3:15 a.m. in the 12000 block of South Wallace Street, the Chicago Fire Department said. The blaze eventually spread to three buildings, Chicago Fire Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt told media Tuesday morning.

Jermaine Pelt, a firefighter Nance-Holt knew personally, was dousing the fire with a hose from the second floor of a neighboring building when that structure also caught fire.

Pelt was working with a hose alongside a lieutenant when the two received an order to evacuate the building due to worsening conditions, Chicago fire spokesman Larry Langford said.

“He’d been in face-to-face communication with his partner: ‘We got to go!’ And his partner started to leave and thought he was right behind him. When they realized that he went down, a May Day was called,” Langford said.

“It wasn’t an explosion or being trapped or anything like that,” Langford said. “They were all ordered out [of the building]. He was on a hose line. They started to come out, but [Pelt] wasn’t with them.”

Nance-Holt said Pelt, 49, was quickly found and brought out for treatment.

“Our firefighters and paramedics, they worked feverishly on Jermaine, doing CPR all the way from the scene to Christ Hospital,” Nance-Holt said.

Pelt was pronounced dead at the hospital, according to officials.

Pelt joined the Chicago Fire Department in 2005 and was based on the South Side his whole career, according to Nance-Holt.

Pelt’s father, John Pelt, was in anguish Tuesday morning but briefly spoke with the Sun-Times over the phone.

“I would call him a hero. He’s my hero,” he said. “Right now I’m not feeling that great.”

John Pelt said his son had a proud moment in November when he walked his 28-year-old daughter down the aisle to get married.

The newlywed had delayed her honeymoon and was just about to leave town for Jamaica when tragedy struck, he said.

“I don’t think she’s feeling that great, either,” he said in a soft voice.

It was clear from a young age that his son was special, John Pelt said.

“When Jermaine was a baby, about 2 years old, he was real smart. He would get a knife and cut himself on the arm so he could get a Band-Aid. And I said ‘This kid is going to be pretty special.’ He ended up being a nurse and a paramedic and a fireman,” his father said.

Pelt graduated from Corliss High School in the Pullman neighborhood before attending Olive-Harvey College, his father said.

He had celebrated a birthday in March and also has a son who is 6 years old.

The injured firefighter was Pelt’s lieutenant, who went in to help pull him from the blaze. He had minor injuries, Langford said. Another firefighter was treated for high blood pressure, Langford said.

Two adults and two children were displaced in the house fire. Officials have not yet determined the cause of the fire.