Nov 20, 2008 6:07 am US/Central
Fire Leaves Southeast Side Building In Ruins
4 Displaced, But No One Injured
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Four people were displaced and a building was destroyed in this extra-alarm fire on the city's Southeast Side.
CBS
Four people were displaced after an extra-alarm fire started in a mixed-used building and spread to two neighboring buildings late Wednesday on the Southeast Side.
Nobody was injured.
The fire started just before midnight at a 2 1/2-story building at 8703 S. Commercial Ave. and was elevated to a second alarm about 12:15 and a third-alarm about 12:40 a.m., Fire Media Affairs spokesman Richard Rosado said.
Firefighters needed "copious amount of water" to put out the blaze, which was extinguished about 2:50 a.m. after the building where the blaze started collapsed. The fire spread to neighboring buildings, 8701 S. Commercial Ave. to the north and 8707, both of which remained standing.
The building where the fire started has a currency exchange on the first floor and residential units on the top floors, but it was not immediately known if anybody lived in the apartments, Rosado said. The Calumet Currency Exchange is located at 8705 S. Commercial Ave.
Four people from the 2 1/2-story building to the south, 8707, will be displaced.
Nobody was injured or rescued, Rosado said.
South Chicago District police said officers closed East 87th Street between South Commercial and South Buffalo avenues because of the blaze.
Firefighters did not have any problems with high winds or cold weather freezing fire hydrants, Rosado said.
Firefighters remained on the scene at 3 a.m. "chasing hot spots" and "conducting overhaul," Rosado said.
The cause and origin of the fire remained under investigation early Thursday, Rosado said.
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