Archive for January 26th, 2013

Chicago 5-11 Alarm + 2 Specials 1-22-13 (pt13)

More images still from the ruins of Tuesday’s 5-11 Alarm with 2 Specials at 3757 S. Ashland Avenue. Larry Shapiro this time has images from the beginning of the demolition on Friday.

demolition of building destroyed by fire

Heavy fire still burning in the basement under the debris. Larry Shapiro photo

demolition of building destroyed by fire

A wrecking company begins dismantling the front wall of the fire building. Larry Shapiro photo

demolition of building destroyed by fire

An excavator clears debris on the south side of the building along 38th Street. Larry Shapiro photo

demolition of building destroyed by fire

A large wall section is torn free from the building. Larry Shapiro photo

fire truck coated with ice

Rolled hose on the tailboard of Engine 39 as they return to quarters. Larry Shapiro photo

vacant building interior with graffiti

The interior of an adjacent vacant building from the same era. Larry Shapiro photo

boarded up commercial building after fire

The exposure building to the south sustained minor damage as a result of the fire at 3757 S. Ashland Avenue. Larry Shapiro photo

demolition of building destroyed by fire

The south wall collapses as the crane works. Larry Shapiro photo

Water dripping from the rear discharge on Engine 39 froze. Larry Shapiro photo

Water dripping from the rear discharge on Engine 39 froze. Larry Shapiro photo

building covered with ice after warehouse fire in Chicago

People continue to stop by the ruins to photograph the building covered with ice. Larry Shapiro photo

A streetlight on 38th Street that melted from the fire. Larry Shapiro photo

A streetlight on 38th Street that melted from the fire. Larry Shapiro photo

building covered with ice after warehouse fire in Chicago

A water stream can be seen from the 3rd floor of the building to the north as it is directed into the center of the ruins. Larry Shapiro photo

demolition of building destroyed by fire

A large wall section is removed as the painstaking process of carefully dismantling the building proceeds. Larry Shapiro photo

building covered with ice after warehouse fire in Chicago

A wall section on the northwest corner of the building encased in ice allows a view of smoke rising from the center of the building. Larry Shapiro photo

A large gallery of images from the ruins of Chicago’s 5-11 Alarm fire can be found at shapirophotography.net.

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Chicago Still & Box Alarm fire 1-25-13

This from Josh Boyajian:

CFD – A still and box alarm @ Kostner and Wilcox. It was a 2 story multi-family two flat with most of the fire in the rear of the building and in the basement. E95 had two lines lead out while T26 made the roof. Here are my pictures.

 

firefighters spraying water

Josh Boyajian photo

firefighters on the roof

Josh Boyajian photo

Chicago Fire Department Engine 95

Josh Boyajian photo

firefighters with hose line

Josh Boyajian photo

fireman with dirty face

Josh Boyajian photo

vinyl siding burning

Josh Boyajian photo

 

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Chicago 5-11 Alarm + 2 Specials 1-22-13 (pt12)

Media articles covering the 5-11 Alarm fire with 2 Specials at 3757 S. Ashland Avenue on January 22nd.

The first from Fox32 talking about Turret Wagon 6-7-1 “Little Mo”:

The massive warehouse fire in Bridgeport started up again Thursday, prompting firefighters to break out a piece of equipment that hasn’t been on the streets in decades.

The Chicago Fire Department’s deluge units are the stuff of legend, featured in classic videos. They’re mostly out of service nowadays, except for one: Little Mo.

“It is the last of the big pieces of apparatus we have left, there used to be Big John, there used to be Big Mo, and now we have Little Mo,” CFD Commander Dan Swift explains.

Firefighters decided to break out Little Mo Thursday morning, after the massive Bridgeport warehouse fire started to burn again.

Little Mo is an old mac truck from the late 1960s, equipped with two turret water guns and room for up to ten hoses. It pumps up to 5,000 gallons of water a minute, compared to just 1,500 gallons a minute from an engine truck.

“It’s one of a kind,” Swift says of Little Mo. ” It’s the last one around, but obviously it’s still useful, we can bring it out here today and still make good use of it.”

So far, firefighters have poured more than a million gallons of water on that smoldering warehouse. That’s enough to fill a pool as big as a football field ten feet deep.

The entire article with video is HERE.

The Chicago Tribune has an article touching on the fire’s origin:

Investigators today determined the blaze that gutted a nearly 100-year-old Bridgeport warehouse began when someone started a fire — but while police are investigating, the determination does not mean the fire was an arson.

The Office of Fire Investigations conclusion came as crews began demolishing the warehouse at 3757 S. Ashland Ave., gutted by the largest fire to hit the city in seven years.

“The Office of Fire Investigation has determined the cause of the 5-11 Fire on Ashland to be open flame ignition of available combustibles,’’ said Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.

“In layman’s terms, that means something that was burning such as a flame or match got near something that would burn,’’ Langford said.

Langford said the building had no gas or electric service and no one was known to be living there. But the night of the blaze, Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago told reporters that in the past, firefighters had been called to the warehouse for small fires caused when squatters lit fires to stay warm.

Tuesday night, a Fire Department battalion chief spotted smoke from the blaze as he drove past around 9 p.m. A third of the department’s on-duty personnel were called to fight the fire, fed by century-old support timbers. Crews have remained there since, dousing flames from the smouldering debris.

Records show the owner of the building is 3737 Ashland LLC, which is controlled by North Development. North Development’s president, Calvin Boender, is in federal prison for bribing former 29th Ward Ald. Isaac “Ike” Carothers.

City officials had sued the owners of the warehouse in 2011 for leaving the vacant building open and dangerous, seeking to demolish it. But the owners registered it as a vacant building and corrected code violations.

The complete Chicago Tribune article is HERE.

thanks Chris

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Chicago 5-11 Alarm + 2 Specials 1-22-13 (pt11)

Tim Olk spent much of Friday at the site of the 5-11 ruins on south Ashland Avenue while the wrecking company began to tear down the front of the building. As the demolition removed sections of the wall, periodic flareups were seen as oxygen was introduced into the various void spaces where fire is still burning underneath the debris. Here are two images from last night just after 11PM.

rekindle after massive warehouse fire in Chicago

Heavy fire is visible from Ashland Avenue and a large wrecking crane works from the bridge. Tim Olk photo

rekindle after massive warehouse fire in Chicago

A look into the ruins from the roof next door, three days after the initial fire. Tim Olk photo

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