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CNN Live Saturday
Chicago Police Investigate Deadly Office Fire
Aired October 18, 2003 - 12:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCRHO: Chicago police are investigating a deadly high-rise office building fire. Six people were killed in the heart of the second city's business district. CNN Chicago bureau chief Jeff Flock is near the damaged building with the very latest.
Jeff, do they have any idea, as yet, as to what caused this fire?
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CHICAGO BUREAU CHIEF: Well, that's job one today, Andrea, to try and figure out what set it off. What they know is it was a disaster out here. Perhaps the worth nightmare to folks that work in a high rise office building, what happens if there's a fire? How do you get out? Do you get out? This is the twelfth floor that you're looking at, here. This is where the flames broke out late Friday afternoon, but that's not where the disaster was, it was on the floors above. According to the fire commissioner, they got the fire out, they then began searching the floors above and apparently a lot of people had made their way up the stairwells trying to escape the flames and smoke. They started finding bodies on the 16th floors through 22nd floors in and around the stairwells. As you report, six people now dead, we've also learned one person is at the hospital in extremely critical condition, as well. So, we may get another death before this is over. From the scene, both spectators. as well as folks who were inside. as well as the fire commissioner now comments.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, there was no panicking. It wasn't like the adrenaline, whatever, was going -- what do I do whatever now, or anything. Pretty much, well I would say, everybody was -- well, at least on my floor, everybody was pretty much well calm.
JAMES JOYCE, CHICAGO FIRE COMMISSIONER: As we knocked the fire down and started to contain it, we went into a more detailed search and we started searching every square foot of that building. It's at that time that we found victims in a stairwell on the upper floors.
FLOCK: So, they'll be looking at the procedures for getting out of the building, Andrea, as well as of the cause. By code, this building was not required to have sprinklers. It's a building built in the 1960, they didn't require retrofits for sprinkler systems, so this did not have a sprinkler system. Also apparently the evacuation orders for the building were given only in English and on a Friday afternoon at 5:00, it appears that there were a number of folks, parts of cleaning crews throughout the building, that spoke only Spanish or polish and they may not have gotten the word to get out -- Andrea.
KOPPEL: Oh, that's really tragic. Jeff Flock for us there, in Chicago.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 18, 2003 - 12:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCRHO: Chicago police are investigating a deadly high-rise office building fire. Six people were killed in the heart of the second city's business district. CNN Chicago bureau chief Jeff Flock is near the damaged building with the very latest.
Jeff, do they have any idea, as yet, as to what caused this fire?
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CHICAGO BUREAU CHIEF: Well, that's job one today, Andrea, to try and figure out what set it off. What they know is it was a disaster out here. Perhaps the worth nightmare to folks that work in a high rise office building, what happens if there's a fire? How do you get out? Do you get out? This is the twelfth floor that you're looking at, here. This is where the flames broke out late Friday afternoon, but that's not where the disaster was, it was on the floors above. According to the fire commissioner, they got the fire out, they then began searching the floors above and apparently a lot of people had made their way up the stairwells trying to escape the flames and smoke. They started finding bodies on the 16th floors through 22nd floors in and around the stairwells. As you report, six people now dead, we've also learned one person is at the hospital in extremely critical condition, as well. So, we may get another death before this is over. From the scene, both spectators. as well as folks who were inside. as well as the fire commissioner now comments.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, there was no panicking. It wasn't like the adrenaline, whatever, was going -- what do I do whatever now, or anything. Pretty much, well I would say, everybody was -- well, at least on my floor, everybody was pretty much well calm.
JAMES JOYCE, CHICAGO FIRE COMMISSIONER: As we knocked the fire down and started to contain it, we went into a more detailed search and we started searching every square foot of that building. It's at that time that we found victims in a stairwell on the upper floors.
FLOCK: So, they'll be looking at the procedures for getting out of the building, Andrea, as well as of the cause. By code, this building was not required to have sprinklers. It's a building built in the 1960, they didn't require retrofits for sprinkler systems, so this did not have a sprinkler system. Also apparently the evacuation orders for the building were given only in English and on a Friday afternoon at 5:00, it appears that there were a number of folks, parts of cleaning crews throughout the building, that spoke only Spanish or polish and they may not have gotten the word to get out -- Andrea.
KOPPEL: Oh, that's really tragic. Jeff Flock for us there, in Chicago.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
