Fire Rips Through Bank In Loop High-Rise
Updated 5:51 a.m. 3/7/11
CHICAGO (CBS) - Two people were injured over the weekend when a fire ripped through a Bank of America branch in a downtown high-rise.
As CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli reports, the fire broke out around 1:35 p.m. in the high-rise building at 33 N. Dearborn St., at the Bank of America, according to a Central District police lieutenant.
The blaze started on the first floor and a 2-11 alarm was called at 1:55 p.m., Fire Media Affairs Director Larry Langford said.
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The office building was nearly empty, but still, firefighters had to help more than a dozen people evacuate.
Looking through the ground-level windows, one could see the teller counter at the bank was engulfed in flames. Any other day of the week, there would have been employees and customers where the fire was raging.
As soon as firefighters broke the windows, smoke started billowing out. Massive plumes quickly rose toward the apex of the 22-story building.
"We searched the entire building all the way to the top including the stairways, and we removed about 13 people," Fire Chief Mike Fox said.
Two people inhaled so much smoke they had to be taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Both were employees of the Walgreens just to the east on Washington Street.
Others, such as Stephanie Sainsbury who was rescued from the 21st floor, were safe, but shaken up.
"There was smoke everywhere," Sainsbury said. "It was pretty scary."
Dave Belofsky and Suzy Silverman's fears were made worse by the fact that their elderly mother was with them when they had to make their escape.
"We found some firemen on the 14th floor, and they told us things were under control, and they told us to keep going and get down as quickly as we could," Belofsky said.
By Sunday night, the bank was boarded up. Major cleanup was underway at the Lavazza Café in the building, and two other businesses that were damaged by smoke and water.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation Monday morning.
The building is located directly across the street from the CBS 2 Broadcast Center, at 22 W. Washington St. It is also directly across Dearborn Street from the George W. Dunne Cook County Office Building at 69 W. Washington St. – an address forever etched in the minds of many Chicagoans.
On Oct. 17, 2003, a fire at the building took the lives of six people who found themselves trapped in locked, smoke-filled stairwells. They were found after the fire was out.
That fire prompted changes in the way the Fire Department handles high-rise fires. First, there are more firefighters called to the scene at a high-rise, as could be seen at the Sunday fire.
Also, firefighters now immediately search stairwells with what they call "rapid ascent teams."
The Fire Department also now has maps of downtown buildings, with stairwell locations, and building managers are trained on fire safety and evacuation plans.
The Sun-Times Media contributed to this report..
