Posts Tagged Buyer’s Flea Market fire

Chicago 4-11 Alarm + 1 Special and Haz Mat Level I, 3-8-16 (more)

Mar 18

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | Comments off

A massive fire this month at a flea market in West Humboldt Park has been ruled accidental, fire officials said Thursday.

The Buyers Flea Market located at 4545 West Division Ave., burned and smoldered for more than 24 hours, destroying a block-wide facility where vendors sold their wares on weekends. An electrical issue may have been the cause, according to a statement from the Chicago Fire Department.

The origin of the fire was determined to be in the vendor’s booths located in the south portion of the market, known as the outdoor section, CFD said.

“Arson was ruled out based on witness statements, computer reconstruction of the events and video footage from multiple security cameras, which were constantly recording almost every area of the facility,” the CFD statement said.

CFD’s Office of Fire Investigation (OFI) investigated the fire in partnership with the Chicago Police Department’s Bomb and Arson Unit and the National Response Team (NRT) of the Federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

“The owner of the property has stated that he will rebuild the facility,” CFD said.

Tags: Buyer's Flea Market fire, Chicago Fire Department, huge fire ruled accidental

Chicago 4-11 Alarm + 1 Special and Haz Mat Level I, 3-8-16 (more)

Mar 17

Posted by Admin in Fire Service News | 4 Comments

Photos from Tim Olk of the ATF National Response Team at the scene of the 4-11 Alarm fire at 4540 W. Haddon

Tim Olk photo

Tim Olk photo

Tim Olk photo

Tim Olk photo

Tags: 4-11 Alarm fire in Chicago, 5-11 Club Canteen Service, ATF K-9, ATF National Response Team, Buyer's Flea Market fire, Chicago 5-11 Club Support Service Unit, Chicago Fire Department, fire scene photos, Tim Olk

Chicago 4-11 Alarm + 1 Special and Haz Mat Level I, 3-8-16 (more)

Mar 16

Posted by Admin in Apparatus on-scene, Fire Scene photos | 3 Comments

This from Steve Redick:

I was able to take in the big job on Tuesday, a 4-11 (actually with all the extra units well over a 5-11 response) at Haddon & Kilbourn. First let’s have a little history lesson. September of 1990 a 4-11 alarm occurred in the same building. A certain famous west side chief gave a radio report describing a concrete structure converted into a flea market and asked for a precautionary box that elevated to a 4-11 Alarm. One comment was made to the effect of this is a concrete structure … the fire is not gonna go anywhere … after this transmission a phantom voice came on the radio and said yeah so was McCormick Place. A fun thing to share and the chief involved is a well respected and admired guy, now enjoying retirement. Perhaps history has enhanced this little anecdote but it’s worth recalling.

Anyway I have enclosed an aerial view of the building involved. It was a massive structure containing thousands of square feet of flea market booths, many sealed off with cyclone fencing. Everything under the sun was stored and sold here. There were no real windows and to make matters worse the entire roof consisted of a concrete parking surface … impossible to ventilate in any way. The building backs up to an elevated railroad embankment, and other access is generally poor with narrow streets in a crowded industrial district. A perfect storm of factors created a massive and dangerous incident.

Arriving units reported heavy smoke conditions and could barely see to maneuver apparatus down the street. Heavy fire was in an area set back from the street, under the parking deck. I arrived about 35 minutes in and observed fire and smoke venting from the inaccessible center portion of the complex. Cars were falling into the fire as the concrete roof deck collapsed.Tower ladder 14 was operating with it’s brand new E-One tower ladder, only days in service.

The fire traveled into a massive portion of the building to the north and caused dangerous smoke conditions making Division Street impassable. A truck company attempted entry into this section using a searchline and TIC but made little headway due obstructions. Several in-line operations were conducted, including two engines driving up on the railroad right-of-way. The hose wagon performed two massive hose lays along Division Street, one east and one west of the fire building. The new Turret Wagon 6-7-3 was also put to use. Smoke conditions downwind were punishing to the engineers as well as members in the tower buckets. The incident lasted many hours and units were on the scene all night long. The building was so large at least one additional RIT was in place.

All of the images can be seen on my website:

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