25 Injured in Chicago High-Rise Fire

Fire broke out high in a downtown office building Monday evening, belching smoke and flames from windows as firefighters helped workers to safety through darkened stairways. Twenty-five people were injured, including a dozen firefighters.

Eight injured firefighters and five others were hospitalized in serious condition, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford. The rest of the injured were treated for smoke inhalation or minor injuries, he said.

Langford said he had no reports of anyone trapped in the 43-story LaSalle Bank building in Chicago’s Loop, but searches of the stairwells and floors were still underway. Firefighters shot water into the windows of the burning structure, and metal window frames were twisted from the heat of the flames.

More than one-third of the city’s fire equipment was at the scene, and thick black smoke continued to pour out windows three hours after the fire was reported.

The fire on the 29th floor was reported about 6:30 p.m., said police Officer JoAnn Taylor. People who escaped said firefighters escorted them downstairs through the thick smoke.

Jim Rubens, who works for a law firm in the building, said he held hands with other victims as firefighters escorted them down a smoky stairwell.

“It was horribly thick smoke and the halls were completely dark,” said Rubens, who was sweating and covered in soot.

Tom Smith, a lawyer, said a firefighter took him to safety in a freight elevator after smoke in a stairway turned him back.

“It’s kind of scary. When I started seeing smoke in the hall, that started getting disconcerting, to say the least,” Smith said.

Sarah Nadelhoffer, a lawyer who worked on the 39th floor, said she was working late when her office started to fill up with smoke.

She and co-workers were forced into another office, where they opened a window to get fresh air. They stuffed a coat under the door to block the smoke, which was getting thicker.

“I was thinking it can’t be over this way,” she said. “I also thought I have no control. I’m going to pray the fire department gets me out.”

The fire comes 14 months after a 35-story downtown building caught fire, killing six people. A state-funded investigation of the October 2003 blaze concluded in September that the deaths could have been prevented if there had been sprinklers and unlocked stairwells, and if firefighters had searched for victims sooner.

The state report also cited inadequate evacuation training of building staff and occupants, and poor communication among fire and police emergency dispatchers as well as the city’s emergency dispatchers and fire commanders at the scene.

Chicago-based LaSalle Bank has $65.1 billion in assets and $35 billion in deposits and is one of the largest banks in the Midwest. Its building was originally named the Field Building, after Chicago retailer Marshall Field, whose estate developed the structure in the early 1930s.