THE CHICAGO (ILLINOIS) FIRE DEPARTMENT HAD TWO simultaneous multi-alarm fires Sunday night. One was a 3-alarm church fire and the other was a 4-alarm fire in the Greektown area that took out a large restaurant and several other businesses.
Larry Shapiro
THE EDGEBROOK LUTHERAN CHURCH on Chicago’s NW side broke out in fire at 9:30 pm Sunday night when a deranged parishioner set a fire in some trash cans outside and then went into the church and set another, larger fire inside. He was arrested a short time later while he was still on the scene after he made an incriminating statement to the police.
Larry Shapiro
The first units arrived to find a fire well involved and spreading rapidly. The response was upgraded to three alarms before the fire was knocked down.
Steve Reddick has assembled a video report with the fireground radio patched onto the audio track:
The man who set the fires is being held in jail on a $1 million bond. The church was “heavily damaged.” The Chicago Sun-Times has the latest report including the arrest HERE.
Chicagoland fire photographer Larry Shapiro has a 72-image photo gallery of the fire HERE.
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AT 11:20 PM A FIRE WAS DISCOVRED AT COSTA’S Greek Dining and Bar, a popular eatery in the Greektown section of Chicago. The restaurant had closed for the evening and the only two people inside were a bartender and another employee. They smelled the smoke and investigated, finding a fire in the kitchen centered around the deep fryer. The bartender attempted to put it out with a fire extinguisher, but it was futile.
When the FD arrived they found heavy fire in the kitchen area and eventually the response was upgraded to a 4th alarm when the fire began spreading to the building next door. A total of 170 firefighters worked the job. When it was over, the restaurant was completely destroyed and the adjacent building that housed three other businesses was so severely damaged that it was torn down today.
Larry Shapiro
Read the Sun-Times story on the fire HERE.
View Larry Shapiro’s 145-image photo gallery of this fire HERE.
Larry Shapiro
Also on FireGeezer…
- Poss. Press. Visits Andy’s Deli in Chicago – February 10, 2011
- 2 FF’s Injured in Fatal High-Rise Fire in Chicago – January 8, 2012
- Chicago’s First Multi-Alarm of 2011 – January 2, 2011
- Early-Morning Fire Claims 3 Children – April 7, 2011
