Excerpts from theChicagoTribune.com:

The Chicago Fire Department requested assistance from the ATF National Response Team to help investigate an extra-alarm fire that tore through a flea market in the West Humboldt Park neighborhood Tuesday.

The fire broke out soon after 9 a.m. inside a one-story building at 4540 W. Haddon Ave. that houses the Buyer’s Flee Market and continued to burn into the evening, swallowing cars parked on the collapsing roof and the wares of hundreds of vendors.

No one was injured in the fire, to which a total of about 180 firefighters and 60 pieces of equipment responded, according to fire officials.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ National Response Team along with the Chicago Fire Department’s Office of Fire Investigation and the Chicago Police Department’s Bomb and Arson Unit are going to work together to determine the cause and origin of the fire.

The investigation of the fire will require “significant amounts of debris, lost merchandise and more than 100 vehicles to be moved from the collapsed structure,” according to a news release from the Chicago Fire Department.

The federal assistance has been requested due to the size of the building and the amount of work needed to determine the cause and origin of the fire, according to the release.

The National Response Team will provide specially certified agents for fire investigation and scene analysis, including a mobile laboratory for forensic analysis and canine teams to examine the remains of chemical traces. The resources  are also going to include electrical engineers and earth moving machinery at no cost to the city.

thanks Dan

Tags: ATF National Response Team, Chicago Fire Department