One dead, several injured in high-rise blaze

Fire in Chicago's Loop Friday (WGN-TV)
October 17, 2003

Tribune staff reports
Published October 17, 2003, 7:57 PM CDT

One person is dead and at least 11 are injured after they were trapped in stairwells and hallways of a county building following a fire that broke out late this afternoon in the 12th floor of the high-rise.

"Some were conscious and breathing. Some were not," Fire Commissioner James Joyce said. He did not have any more information on their conditions.


Joyce said firefighters continued to search for more victims.

The victims were discovered after firefighters appeared to have the blaze under control and most people appeared to have evacuated safely. The injured were found in stairwells and hallways from the 16th to the 22nd floors, above where the fire broke out.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-031017fire,1,4279158.story?coll=chi-news-hed

It was the Cook County Administrative Building in Downtown Chicago.

Thanks, Don_G.

I just happen to be in Chicago at the moment and caught it on the news.

and vaguely knew Dick Devine growing up (went to grade school here in Chicago with his late brother).

I guess they had a news conference and thought that everyone was out, but then they found all these people in the hallways and stairwells.

These things should not be happening in this day and age- (the architect in me bleeds when these things happen)

Anyway, it should put the Cub Fan thing in perspective for the loonies in Chi-town.

And wasn't retrofitted with a sprinkler system. The same thing happened in Louisville in a residential high-rise.

Not every city has the stringent fire codes that New York has.

On Edit: I'm also a Cub's fan and, while Bartman made an honest mistake, has deservedly earned a footnote in Cub's history as the 2003 "Goat."

I'm very sorry to hear that there were casualties.

We had a fire on the roof of our old Municipal Building in Seattle ON Wednesday, and when I woke up, all I could see was a plume of smoke over downtown. This building was vacant and soon to be demolished, but it was hard to tell where it was coming from.

A horrible catastrophe.

No link yet.

I can't believe this, and to think it wasn't up to proper modern fire codes....

Wow....I bet money it was electrical...generally the case with older office buildings, people don't bother to inspect/replace wiring or loads...and if it didn't have modernized fire protection, probably didn't have updated/inspected electrical wiring...all speculation of course,

So sad....Chicago has had a really bad week.