Massive fire rips through truck maintenance center, parked truck tractors, in Rockdale
ROCKDALE, Ill. (CBS) -- Investigators late Friday were trying to find out what sparked a massive fire at a tank truck and trailer maintenance center in southwest suburban Rockdale.
As CBS 2's Jackie Kostek reported, it was calm and clear outside the smoldering maintenance center at 132 S. Harris Dr. in Rockdale. But police and fire departments and other agencies from Rockdale and several neighboring jurisdictions remained at the scene, trying to determine the cause of the fire.
We do know no injuries have been reported. But while no one was physically injured, CBS 2's Kostek talked to the owner of the company and several employees - who said being inside when that fire started spreading was the scariest moment of their lives.
Kris Habermehl was over the scene of the fire in Chopper 2 for hours. Flames and thick black smoke billowed into the air as the metal walls of the maintenance center were left bent and melted, and the trucks inside were destroyed.
The fire also engulfed numerous bobtails, or semi-trailer truck tractors, that were parked outside around the building. Chopper 2 was there as the flames seemed to engulf the bobtails one by one.
Habermehl reported he could see the smoke from Chopper 2 all the way from downtown Chicago.
A second alarm was called for the fire and neighboring fire departments were brought in. Habermehl reported it was a very hot fire, and with diesel fuel, solvents, fluids, fiberglass, and rubber tires burning.
"I've never seen anything like this, you know?" said John Plotke, who owns a business just across the street from the truck repair shop that caught fire.
First, around 4:30 p.m., he said he saw a small fire burning from the west side of the building. Then he heard a pop.
"We heard one then the blaze and the smoke got bigger, and then we heard another one - probably a series of 12, 14 of them," Plotke said.
Amid the 12 to 14 pops, Plotke says there was one explosion that shook him to his core.
"The mechanics were still in the shop, because they all come running out," he said. "One or two of them were coughing and gasping for air, you know?"
CBS 2 spoke to the owner of the truck repair shop, who didn't want to go on camera, but said there were 14 to 16 employees inside the building at the time of the fire. They first tried to tamp down flames with a fire extinguisher, but quickly were overcome by the spreading smoke.
At that point, they ran for their lives.
With a mountain of smoke rising from the building, Plotke says he's thankful the wind was blowing in from the northwest.
"There was all kinds of burning debris in the air, and we didn't want, of course, it coming on our building, or the neighboring buildings, the trucks over here, the gas station," he said.
A police officer said the owner of the building that burned at one point had to be handcuffed and briefly detained because he kept trying to go back into the burning building to recover items.
Ultimately a defensive attack on the fire saved the day. Only half of the building was ultimately destroyed as the fire was brought under control and finally extinguished.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation Friday night.
