There were no injuries and no obvious cause Thursday to a fire that gutted a single unit of a Lincoln Park high rise building.
Officials said the fire was contained to a single unit on the 24th floor of the building on the 2600 block of North Lakeview Avenue.
Residents in the building were expected to be able to return to their units by Thursday evening, aside from the single apartment that was totalled, officials said.
Fire commissioner Jose Santiago said there was great potential for the fire to get out of hand but said crews responded quickly and their battle went well.
"The fire was contained because the door was closed inside the unit. The unit's completely, totally destroyed. [There was a] tremendous amount of fire. The best part of this whole scenario is that there was no injuries," he said.
Many who lived in the building told NBC Chicago they didn't recall hearing smoke alarms.
"I started to smell smoke. I heard all the sirens and saw the smoke go past my window and kind of made a beeline for the stairs," said resident Kate Walsh.
Nearly 200 firefighters and roughly 60 pieces of fire equipment responded to the building.
The 42-story building was built in 1968. Its 491 units were converted to condominiums in 1976, according to the building's website. Two people died in a fire at the building five years ago. Due to the building's age, the city doesn't require a sprinkler system.
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| Photo: Carly Holstein, Twitter |
