The alley behind the 5700 block of West 64th Place is littered with burned debris and cardboard fireworks tubes. The Chicago Fire Department said at least five garages were destroyed and more were severely damaged after an errant firework from an illegal display ignited one of the structures and the fire spread in the city's Clearing neighborhood near Midway Airport.
Chicago’s Commanding Fire Marshal for Investigations Ryan Rivera lives a couple of blocks from the scene and walked the area this morning.
“There was evidence of fireworks in the entire neighborhood,” Rivera said.
Firefighters responded to more than 300 fire calls over a 24-hour period surrounding the 4th of July, with 14 of those calls requiring investigations, Rivera said. Eight of the calls involved fireworks.
At a news conference Wednesday focusing on Holiday safety, Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt expressed her frustration with the rampant use of illegal backyard fireworks.
“Considering how many fireworks are being set off, I know I heard a lot around my house all the way up until this morning,” she said.
Prior to the holiday, Nance-Holt attended another news conference to talk about the dangers of backyard displays and urged Chicagoans to “leave it to the professionals” when it comes to fireworks.
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But over the holiday weekend, numerous displays sprung up from the Southwest Side to the baseball diamonds at Winnemac Park and Streeterville’s Ohio Street Beach.
During that multi-hour, unauthorized display, cars stopped on DuSable Lake Shore Drive with drivers getting out to watch, bringing traffic to a halt.
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Interim CPD Supt. Fred Waller said illegal fireworks displays are not a high priority for his department.
“If you say fireworks as opposed to a man with a gun or somebody battering someone; those type of cases and those type of calls are going to take priority over fireworks,” he told reporters.
However Waller admits the problem is a serious one and one the department needs to address. “It doesn’t go to the back of the burner, but we would be responding to hundreds and hundreds of those types of calls coming on the 4th of July weekend,” Waller said.
He and Nance-Holt said they are concerned about new legislation pending in the Illinois General Assembly to legalize many types of fireworks banned in Chicago. “Right now, in Springfield, they are trying to pass bills to make fireworks legal in the city of Chicago, so we need your help to keep them illegal,” the Fire Commissioner said.
Looking over the charred garages in the Clearing neighborhood, Edgar (who prefers not to give his last name) said the damage caused by fireworks is tragic. “It just shows you what the how disastrous the results can be when we are not too careful with the fireworks,” he said.
