Jul 6, 2008 6:20 am US/Central
Fire Destroys Southwest Side Factory
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
A massive fire consumed an old factory early Sunday morning on the Southwest Side.
CBS 2's Pamela Jones reports that firefighters were called to the 4500 block of South Western Avenue around 1:30 a.m. Sunday. Four-and-a-half hours later, they were still putting water on hot spots at the building.
Glowing flames and billowing smoke rose from the vacant warehouse. Firefighters on the scene said the structure is brick, but it had a wooden roof that burned very quickly.
The danger of that roof potentially collapsing created the need for additional fire crews. People in a nearby apartment building were evacuated so firefighters could attack the blaze from the roof there.
The flames and smoke were visible from just about anywhere in the neighborhood.
Elisa Arreola said, "We can see the flames from all the way to the house. That's how high they are and the smoke too. We can see it from our house and we live like a block from here."
Jonathan Azuara said, "I just started seeing like fire and then I just grabbed the phone. I went to the building and called my family out. Then i just called 911."
Fortunately no one was hurt in the blaze. Firefighters said many of their colleagues across the country have been killed in similar fires, so they wanted to be very careful.
The cause of the blaze was under investigation Sunday morning.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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