Mar 25, 2009 8:31 am US/Central
Fire Displaces 125 At Old Town Residential Hotel
No One Seriously Injured, But Hotel Closed
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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A fire broke out early Wednesday in a fourth floor room at the Carling Hotel, a residential hotel at 1512 N. LaSalle Blvd.
CBS
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A fire broke out early Wednesday in a fourth floor room at the Carling Hotel, a residential hotel at 1512 N. LaSalle Blvd.
CBS
A fire broke out in an Old Town neighborhood residential hotel Wednesday morning, prompting residents to spill out onto the street in the dead of the predawn hours.
As CBS 2's Joanie Lum reports, firefighters were notified at 4:29 a.m. of the blaze at the Carling Hotel, 1512 N. LaSalle Blvd. When the Fire Department arrived, everyone was self-evacutating because of alarms in the building, fire officials said.
Some residents needed assistance, and the city Department of Human Services was on the scene.
After the fire was put out, the hotel was shut down and 125 residents were displaced.
Most of the rooms were not damaged by the fire and will be habitable, however, as of 5:30 a.m., the fire department was not allowing residents to re-enter the building because the fire damaged the alarm system, according to Fire Media Affairs spokesman Larry Langford, who said people will not be allowed back in until the system is repaired.
Residents described their evacuation.
"Apparently, we were awoken a half an hour ago, and the alarms were going off, so I just came down," a man said, "and apparently there's a fire on the fourth floor."
"I looked down the hall; there was smoke – a lot of smoke – and so everybody got out," another man said, "and the guy who lives up where the fire is – he's been here for quite some time, and he had a lot of stuff in his apartment."
"I was in a very deep sleep, [then] I heard the alarm," said Jerry Quigley, 45, a custodial worker who lives in the building. "I could smell the smoke and by the time I had grabbed some important papers and got to my door, the smoke just billowed in."
Emma Rolon, 55, who routinely sleeps in her clothes in case there is a fire, said she "saw red flames on the outside of the building on the fourth floor" after she heard fire alarms going off.
The fire was contained to one room on the fourth floor of the four-story building. Some of the residents were treated on the scene for minor injuries, but no one was taken to the hospital, fire officials said.
The fire was raised to a 2-11 alarm, and ambulances were also called out.
The alarm was struck out about 35 minutes before the first alarm went off, and firefighters hosed down the charred room afterward.
The large and quick personnel response was due in part to the fact that the building is old and that many of the residents have medical problems, Langford said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation early Wednesday by the Chicago Fire Department's Office of Fire Investigation.
"We don't know what started it,'' Langford said.
The Carling Hotel is just down the block from another residential hotel that burned in a tragic fire 16 years ago.
The Paxton Hotel, at 1432 N. LaSalle Blvd., burned down on March 16, 1993. The massive fire was prompted a 5-11 alarm and an Emergency Medical Services Plan 3, which sends 15 ambulances. In the end, 20 people died in that fire and more than two dozen were injured, and published reports said some people were completely incinerated.
CBS 2's Joanie Lum and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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