Major smoke, minor fire in east tower

24-Apr-09 – Chicago Fire Department responded to “a very minor” fire at Marina City on Friday afternoon. At about 2:50 p.m., a straw chair on a 50th floor patio in the east residential tower caught fire.

According to CFD spokesperson Larry Langford, “It may have been started by somebody throwing a cigarette from another floor or something.”

Langford says it generated “a considerable amount of smoke” which got inside the residence. Numerous fire department vehicles responded to the fire, say residents, closing North State Street. The vehicles had left an hour later.

Reports Langford, “No injuries at all, just one dead chair.” (Left) A single fire truck from CFD Engine Company 42 was back the next day, parked in front of the east residential tower at Marina City on Saturday.

At the April 30 MTCA board of directors meeting, property manager David Gantt told the condo board the fire started in unit 5035, which is a one-bedroom unit owned by Abel Badenhorst. Gantt says a spark from an electrical cord – wrapped around the leg of an aluminum chair – caused the chair to catch fire. With the unit owner away, a neighbor saw the fire and called 911. This brought a large number of fire fighters and in the confusion, said Gantt, residents of the east tower were mistakenly told to evacuate the building. A second announcement told residents to stay in their units.

But Gantt reassured the board, “The speaker systems all worked. Your smoke detectors worked. Your elevator recall worked. Everything that you spent money on worked and was done right. The only errors were human errors, which hopefully the fire department will avoid if we ever have a real serious situation.”

[Updated 23-May-09]