Posted on 10/18/2003 10:05:43 AM PDT by JustPiper
Out on the street, there were sighs of relief -- only a few minor injuries after a 12th-floor fire at the Cook County Administration Building in the Loop on Friday evening.
But as firefighters more thoroughly searched the building in response to 911 calls coming in, a catastrophe unfolded: 13 people found overcome by smoke in stairwells and hallways between the 16th and 22nd floors -- some breathing, some not. Six of them were later pronounced dead in the worst Loop high-rise fire in recent decades.
At least three of the dead were employees of the Cook County public guardian's office. Officials feared the death toll could rise through the night. The cause of the fire was still under investigation.
"The people who passed away appeared to be in one area of one stairwell," said Fire Commissioner James Joyce, who had to fend off questions about why it took firefighters so long to find the victims. "This is not unusual for a fire of this magnitude.... It's more complicated than it looks from the outside."
The fire broke out around 5 p.m. Firefighters apparently began to find the bodies shortly before 7 p.m., when more than 15 ambulances were summoned to the scene.
"At no time during the fire did we not search.... There were a number of calls. People said, 'I'm trapped,' " Joyce said. "Until we got the fire under control, then we were able to use our manpower to search the place foot by foot.
"Seven or eight were found in one stairwell up around 21 or 22."
The tan, 35-story building at 69 W. Washington was built in 1965 and didn't have sprinklers above ground level -- a fact that brought a sharp rebuke from Public Guardian Patrick Murphy: "It makes no sense to me. What are you thinking of?"
Sprinklers undoubtedly would have prevented the fire from wreaking so much havoc, said Tom Lia, executive director of the Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board, a trade association.
The building was bought by the county in 1996 and is home to about 2,500 government workers. Fortunately, many had already left for the weekend.
Employees gave conflicting accounts about whether alarms sounded when the blaze broke out. Many were forced to find their own way down smoke-filled stairwells, and some complained that the evacuation by firefighters was disorganized. The building was not required to have an evacuation plan filed with the city because it was not tall enough to meet the criteria, said Larry Langford, spokesman for the city's 911 center.
"The smoke was pretty clear when it first got in the stairwell, but when I got to the 12th floor, it was black," said Marienne Branch, a lawyer in the public defender's office on the 17th floor. "I was terrified, and I'm still scared."
Branch said she smelled smoke soon after an announcement on the building's public address system told occupants to evacuate the 12th floor. She then called down to management, which told her the whole building was being evacuated.
Employees in Murphy's 18th-floor office smelled smoke right after the announcement. Immediately, they thought of Michael C. Cafferty, a lawyer in their office who is a quadriplegic. Rather than carry his wheelchair down 18 floors, Murphy's staff got Cafferty on an elevator.
Another public guardian's employee on the 19th floor who asked not to be identified said she and other employees initially were instructed not to leave the building.
But they started going down the southeast stairwell, only to be met by firefighters, who told them to go back up because the path was blocked. The woman eventually got back up to the 27th floor, where another firefighter directed her to another stairwell, which was clear.
Cook County State's Attorney Richard Devine tried to lead a group of four or five people from his 32nd-floor office down to the 23rd floor, only to be halted by "thick black smoke" pouring up the southeast stairwell, according to his spokesman, John Gorman.
The group retreated up to the 27th floor, called the Fire Department and were directed to the northwest stairwell, where they descended safely. "It was a harrowing experience," Gorman said.
Gorman said he knew of two people from the state's attorney's office and one from the chief judge's office who were treated for smoke inhalation.
The 12th floor, where the blaze started, includes Secretary of State Jesse White's business services and securities departments, as well as a drivers' services division where people who've had their licenses suspended come to pick them up. There are about 40 employees on the floor.
David Druker, a spokesman for White, was told employees saw flames initially coming from the ceiling of a supply room or broom closet. He stressed the information had not been confirmed by authorities.
White said his offices sustained substantial smoke and water damage, with computers ruined, pipes exposed and documents destroyed. He anticipated the fire would have "a significant impact" on his office.
Three of the victims were pronounced dead at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, two at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center and one at Stroger Hospital. Four of the injured remained at Northwestern, and two remained at Rush. Two others were treated and released from Northwestern.
The fire was the deadliest in the Loop in decades. In 1946, 61 people died in a blaze at the LaSalle Hotel at LaSalle and Madison. In 1982 four died at the Conrad Hilton, 720 S. Michigan.
Contributing: Dave Newbart, Ana Mendieta, Annie Sweeney, Abdon Pallasch and Curtis Lawrence
AT LEAST 3 IN PUBLIC GUARDIAN'S OFFICE DIE
Cook County Public Guardian Patrick Murphy, whose lawyers and staffers serve as champions for the state's young and elderly wards, said at least three of his people were killed -- possibly more. *Maureen McDonald has worked with the state's elderly wards for more than 20 years. "She's been with me since nearly the beginning," Murphy said. "She was our chief bookkeeper, arranged funerals, went to them, she worked seven days a week. I couldn't replace her with five people." *Sara White Chapman, 38, was a lawyer with a master's degree in social work who worked 12 hours a day over the past 10 years representing children in divorce cases. *John Slater III, 39, originally from Kansas, represented children in divorce cases and had been at the office about eight years. "He just ran the marathon on Sunday, he was a great athlete, he'd just been married a year," Murphy said. "Friday night at 5 o'clock and they're all still there working," he said. "That shows you. Their lives are dedicated to protecting the young and elderly. And they'd have been there until 6 or 7 o'clock." Abdon M. Pallasch
OTHER DEADLY DOWNTOWN BLAZES
The blaze in the Cook County Administration Building was the deadliest downtown high-rise fire in recent years. Other downtown high-rise fires include: 1946 -- LaSalle Hotel, LaSalle and Madison. The worst hotel fire in Chicago history killed 61 guests. The cause was never determined. 1982 -- Conrad Hilton Hotel, 720 S. Michigan. A mattress fire touched off by a cigarette killed four guests. 1987 -- Illinois Center, 111 E. Wacker. Despite two calls to 911 pleading for help, a woman trapped on the 20th floor while working late died of smoke inhalation. 1993 -- Paxton Hotel, 1432 N. LaSalle. Some of the 20 people who died in this single-room-occupancy hotel blaze were trapped by burglar bars on first-floor windows. Art Golab
Geez! I'm in NC and there are evac plans posted on the walls of even single story buildings...
As of late Friday, investigators had not determined the cause of the blaze, which forced evacuation of the Cook Country Administration Building at 69 W. Washington St. Though owned by the county, the structure houses 2,500 workers of county, city and state agencies. The 12th floor, where the blaze began, Chicago fire officials said, is occupied entirely by workers reporting to Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White. David Druker, a spokesman for White, said workers on the floor reported "seeing flames coming from a closet, flames from the ceiling in a storage closet."
Fire officials said the blaze was reported at 5:03 p.m., a time when many government offices had already closed.
Several people who escaped the building after the blaze began said they did not hear a fire alarm, though they said at least two announcements ordering various levels of evacuations were made over the building's public address system.
"I don't know when the fire alarms went off," Joyce told reporters. "That will be part of our investigation."
Evacuation missed many
Officials initially believed that the building had been completely evacuated, but Joyce said victims trapped on floors 16 to 22 of the building continued to call 911. <<<--------------------->>>
Michael Mermall said his wife, Meribeth, who works in the Cook County state's attorney's office on the 27th floor, called him at 5:20 p.m. on his cell phone and was hysterical.
Meribeth Mermall, who is a legislative aide for Devine, told her husband that Devine and his entire executive staff were on the floor at the time and the office had filled with smoke.
She said the staff was hesitant to leave their office because the staircase was full of smoke. Nevertheless, they piled down the stairway, suffering from minor smoke inhalation. Once they reached the ground floor, they were all given oxygen.
"The first thing you think is it's another 9/11," said Michael Mermall. "You don't expect to get a frantic phone call from your wife saying she's trapped in a building with smoke."
The 12th floor secretary of state offices where the blaze began deal with corporate and other financial records as well as records of drivers who have had their licenses suspended or revoked.
The building is not equipped with a sprinkler system and was not required to because of its age, according to Larry Langford, a spokesman for the city's office of emergency communications.
Once known as the Brunswick Building, the structure, built in the early 1960s, was purchased by the county in 1996 for nearly $40 million. At the time, County Board President John Stroger argued the purchase would save the county money by allowing it to consolidate several offices in one location and eliminate the need to lease office space.
The County Board subsequently awarded a management contract to operate the building to a politically connected joint venture formed by U.S. Equities and East Lake Management and Development Corp., which is run by Elzie Higginbottom, a strong political backer of Stroger and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.
Idiocy.
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