Some Hancock Residents Say They Didn't Hear Any Alarms During Fire
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A fire in a Hancock Center 50th floor condo left five people with minor injuries Saturday.
The massive response by firefighters, making sure more weren't hurt was impressive.
CBS 2's Vince Gerasole learned more about how crews tackled the blaze and discovered a key piece of the building's safety equipment may not have been functioning.
The sight of the Hancock's 50th floor took our breath away, but the enormous amount of responders, some 180, reacted differently.
"From our standpoint it was positive. From what people on the ground see it was catastrophic said Deputy Fire Commissioner John McNicholas, who was in command that day. "It actually helps us to know the heat and smoke are venting outward versus towards us, up stairwells where people might be evacuating."
McNicholas says the Hancock is equipped with an enunciator panel, which allowed fire crews to make an announcements to tenants to stay in place while firefighters battled the blaze, but after the fire, CFD learned something troubling.
"We were told by building management that it seemed to be sporadic and cutting in and out for lack of better terms so how much of that got to all the different levels we are not 100 percent sure," McNicholas said.
"You get scared because you see a lot of smoke but like the doorman answered like immediately and the firemen had everything fine," said Jorge Rovira, a resident on the 58th floor.
For Rovira, that information set him at ease enough to take some pictures later, but a nearby resident, who never heard an announcement, had a different reaction.
"I said we don't have any information here, there's no announcements, no alarms going off, we have no idea what's going on," she said. "In this day and age you don't know if it's something worse an act of terrorism or a plane hitting the building."
No one at Hancock management responded to our repeated requests today to speak about the enunciator panels. It's not a required item in a high rise, but if one is present, and the building is relying on it for safety, residents say they hope it works.