Fire in the City

[Tannerman]

On Saturday, I ran over to the airport to pick up our friends Matt & Kelly Kiser. They had just returned from an Alaskan cruise and we babysat their car for a week when they drove up from Indiana to fly out of O'Hare.

Wow, that's a big fire!

On the way back from the airport, Kelly asked, "where is that black smoke coming from?" We all looked up and sure enough, there was a huge column of smoke in the sky. As we drove, it was actually pretty close to where we live. So we headed over to the top of a hospital parking garage to see if we could get a better look over the houses and trees.

Watch video via YouTube


Watch the smoke build

It turns out the fire was at a factory building that warehoused products for dollar stores. Lots of plastic products inside, which would probably account for the toxic-looking black smoke. The fire started out as a 2-alarm blaze and was quickly upgraded to a 4-alarm fire with a Hazmat team dispatched as well. Over 250 firefighters and 41 pieces of equipment were on the scene. Yeah, we take fire seriously here in Chicago!

Matt is awed by the smoke

The fire actually stopped travel of our commuter rail trains as firefighters had to run water hoses over the tracks as they were so close to the fire location. It was reported that the fire could be seen way out in the suburbs as well.

Crazy!

[Tannerman]

Here's the story as reported by the Chicago Tribune:

Massive fire breaks out on NW Side
Warehouse burns, smoke visible for miles

By Dan P. Blake, Mary Owen and David Wischnowsky
Tribune staff reporters
Published May 12, 2007, 9:05 PM CDT

A massive extra-alarm fire erupted in a warehouse on the city's Northwest Side this afternoon, emitting black smoke visible for miles and halting several Metra trains in the area.

The fire broke out just before 5:24 p.m. in the 4100 block of North Knox Avenue, said Chicago Police Officer Tom Polick. At about 7 p.m., Chicago Fire Department officials said the fire was still burning and the roof of the building had collapsed, but the smoke had turned white.

No injuries were reported.

The one-story factory building, owned by Chicago Imports, Inc., supplied materials to "dollar stores" and had products stacked roughly 18 to 20 feet high, said Chicago Fire Department Commissioner Raymond Orozco. Four people were inside the building when the flames broke out but all were accounted for, Orozco said.

Firefighters had to put water hoses over train tracks used by Metra to get an angle to douse the building, he said. That caused three Metra trains on the Milwaukee District North Line running from Chicago to Fox Lake to be stopped on the tracks that run near the fire, said Metra spokesman Tom Miller.

Earlier, smoke from the fire could be seen as far away as Evanston and neighborhoods across the city. The response to the blaze rose to a 4-11 alarm, with over 250 firefighters on the scene, along with more than 41 pieces of fire equipment, Orozco said.

"There's just smoke everywhere -- it's huge," said Ross Hudson, an employee at Taxicar Taxi, located on Knox Avenue about 10 blocks south of the site. "You can see the smoke for miles. It's super black."

Hudson said he and the other cabbies first heard about the fire when a driver came back to the shop and asked if they'd heard about it. "He could see it from when he was driving downtown on the expressway," Hudson said. "We went outside and saw all the smoke everywhere."

The cause of the blaze was unclear early this evening, and investigators haven't been able to get inside the building. Orozco said the department called out a Level 1 Hazardous Materials response due to some small explosions due to aerosol products being housed in the building but Orozco said the smoke is not toxic.

"We expect to be out here for quite a while, it's a very large building," Orozco said.

The building is several blocks from the Kennedy Expressway but Illinois State Police said it didn't cause the closure of any lanes on the expressway.

The fire is not affecting CTA service other than causing the reroute the No. 18 Montrose bus, spokeswoman Sheila Gregory said.

Metra trains Nos. 2604, 2605 and 2607 were stopped on the tracks near the fire for more than two hours, Miller said. As of 9 p.m., trains were still halted between the Forest Glen and Healy stations, but Metra was shuttling passengers in buses between the affected area.

"It's until further notice, until we're given the OK from the fire department to get them moving again," Miller said.

Source

[FriarTuck]

We had a five alarm fire at the local lumber yard on Sunday. We saw the thick black smoke rising over Fox Lumber at 111th & Cicero when we exited the sanctuary after worship . Unfortunately, I am not able to provide photos as it was my turn to count the offering.

Fire guts Alsip lumber store

May 13, 2007
FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A five-alarm fire destroyed a hardware and lumber store in south suburban Chicago on Sunday, authorities said.


Police said the massive fire at the Fox Home Center began around noon and quickly spread.
Smoke could be seen for miles as firefighters from dozens of agencies responded.
Alsip Fire Chief Chuck Geraci said the store, which sells hardware, plumbing and electrical products, had large quantities of hazardous materials inside. The cause of the fire remained under investigation.
One firefighter suffered from dehydration while fighting the blaze, Geraci.
AP

It seems a propane tank exploded and the fire quickly engulfed the yard and the building. My parents lost power for three hours and local traffic was a disaster for much of the afternoon.

[Folkerts]

I saw both of these over the weekend. The Dollar Store fire was visible from the I-80/I-55 Junction. I saw the Alsip fire on the way home from church. Both very large with lots of black smoke.

[Kidologist]

Hey, small world! We were right there! I was at a wedding (blog coming) and the fire was RIGHT BEHIND the church. it took us a while to get to my wife's parents afterward (in Oak Lawn) because of the traffic and trains and people staring at smoke. I didn't even think to take a picture.

[AmySly]

I was driving to a friend's house and it took me twice as long because of the roads that were closed off from the fire. When I got to the intersection of Addison and Cicero, I couldn't believe how hard it was to breathe because of the smoke. There were pieces of ash just falling from the sky too. Crazy stuff!