An extra-alarm fire broke out Thursday afternoon in an apartment building in Chicago's North Park neighborhood.
The fire broke out in the three-story apartment building with a garden level in the 5100 block of North Kimball Avenue, just south of Foster Avenue and the Albany Park Branch of the Chicago Public Library. The building has eight apartments, five of which were occupied, according to Chicago Fire Department 1st District Chief Jim McDonough.
While earlier reports indicated that two twin buildings caught fire, it appeared that it was actually just one building with two wings of apartments and an outdoor wooden staircase structure in between.
The building is also located directly across the street from the Carole Robertson Center for Learning and a short distance from Frederick Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center High School.
It appeared that the fire climbed from the first floor the building up through the second and third, and through the roof.
Upon arriving, firefighters found the enclosed rear porches in the back of the building were all engulfed in flames. They launched a coordinated fire attack from the alley.
The Fire Department set up an aerial tower to send water cascading down from high above the apartment buildings. Firefighters had to let some of the roof material burn away to get down tot the seed of the fire.
The Fire Department searched the building and found that everyone escaped safely, McDonough said.
The building has a brick exterior, but everything inside was made of flammable wood, including walls and rafters, McDonough said.
Firefighters had to call for more resources to fight the blaze, raising a 2-11 alarm. A 2-11 alarm sends at least eight engines, four trucks, two tower ladders, five battalion chiefs, a district chief, a deputy district chief, a squad company, an ambulance and the Command Van to the scene. A total of 32 companies and about 99 firefighters respond for a 2-11 alarm, McDonough said.
There were no reports of injuries.
