UPTOWN — State employees had to evacuate a building in Uptown Tuesday morning after a electrical fire outside the building forced smoke inside, according to a Chicago Fire Department spokesman.
Around 9:25 a.m., an electrical fire started in the underground power vault, or what's known as a transformer, on the sidewalk outside of a high rise at 5050 N. Broadway, a building that houses an office for the Illinois Department of Human Services, among other businesses, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.
Smoke from the electrical fire was getting into the building, which is why employees evacuated, Langford said.
Employees congregated in front of the building while firefighters worked near the underground power vault, which was sectioned off with police tape.
"It was nothing serious," Langford said.
There were no injuries and no one was hospitalized, Langford said. Those working in the building had evacuated before fire trucks arrived, he added.
A little over an hour after the fire started, employees were seen re-entering the building and fire trucks were seen driving away.
ComEd is investigating the incident, Langford said.
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