On March 20, 1971, Chicago Fire Department Firefighter Harry E. Bielawski of Engine Company 63 died in the line of duty during an extra alarm fire at a vacant building on E. 63rd Street. Bielawski and Firefighter Eugene Craven were operating a hose line when the building suddenly collapsed. The firefighters were trapped under rubble that had fallen from the second and third floors of the building. Craven was trapped in the rubble for two hours and suffered serious burns, but it took rescuers more than eleven hours, and the assistance of two cranes, to recover Bielawski.

He was survived by his wife and three children.