OLD TOWN — Staff at Second City found something to smile about in the aftermath of Wednesday's extra-alarm blaze: news that their collection of historically valuable art largely survived despite the destruction of other memorabilia and office equipment in the theater's sales, accounting and administrative offices.
Late cartoonist Bill Utterback's famous caricatures, which he created for each resident Second City production, were largely untouched, with just a few out of 100 showing signs of damage. Utterback was Second City's in-house caricaturist before he died in 2010. His illustrations also appeared in Playboy and Chicago magazines.
"Believe it or not — those weren't touched by the fire. They're still hanging on the wall," said Tyler Alexander, Second City's vice president of digital media and the son of owner Andrew Alexander.
Alexander called the "Utterbacks," which line the lobby and hallways of the Wells Street theater, the "only things of historical value" that were in jeopardy. The improv comedy institution houses most of its historical memorabilia at an off-site location.
Second City evacuated its offices and its next-door theater compound around 1 p.m. Wednesday after a grease fire in the kitchen of Adobo Grill, 1610 N. Wells St., traveled up a vent and incinerated the second and third floors of the historic building, which housed Second City's offices.
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"All things considered, we made out pretty well," said Alexander. "Nobody hurt — that's the most important thing."
Alexander was eating in a conference room with a couple other employees when smoke started to come through the ceiling. He said he thought it was due to work on the roof and dismissed the smoke at first.
Then, employees with the operations department, including general manager Mike Conway, came in saying, "We need to get out the building as quickly as possible."
"It was super calm," Alexander said. "No panic, everyone moved out quickly and efficiently."
Conway and Jeff Gandy were instrumental in gathering kids who were in Second City's training center, Alexander said. Once everyone was accounted for via head count, the group headed to nearby bar Corcoran's, 1615 N. Wells St.
The bar graciously picked up the tab, Alexander added.
John Moloznik, general manager of the running store next door, Fleet Feet, 1620 N. Wells St. — which has "quite a bit of water and debris" Thursday — called Conway an "absolute hero."
"He came through all of the businesses and beat security to the detail," he said, adding that Conway was taken to the hospital to be checked out, just to be safe.
Moloznik also applauded the firefighters, saying the "the department saved our building and saved our store — there's no question about it.
"It could've easily taken out the whole block, but they kept it to one building," he added.
Alexander agreed, joking "This is my first fire. As far as fires go, I think it went pretty well." To show its gratitude, Second City plans to host a benefit, possibly a show, in honor of the firefighters, he said.
Though Second City's theaters were spared from major water and smoke damage, the area around the lobby and escalators are filled with debris.
“The common area is in rough shape,” Alexander said.
As a result, tonight's scheduled shows and some classes have been canceled. Other classes are being relocated, Alexander said.
While Alexander did not know when shows will start up again, he said he doesn't imagine the theater will be closed for longer than a week.
"It's totally contingent on getting the common area cleaned up," he said.
So far, it's unclear where Second City's offices will relocate. Alexander said it's up to the insurance company handling the incident. However, iO Theater offered its space to box office workers Wednesday evening.
Just north of the building damaged by the fire, an employee for the Americana Towers apartment building was hosing down the sidewalk and curb of the debris early Thursday. He said it was carried by massive amounts of water that poured out of the damaged structure.
Tony Alvarez, a janitor at the apartment building, said he was shocked there wasn't more to clean. He and some other employees went to the building's roof to get a bird's eye view of the fire.
"We could see flames," he said. "It was crazy."
In true Second City fashion, jokes have been circulating around the Internet. Andrew said one of his favorites was that he was running the place into the ground and it turns out he's actually burning it down.
"We took it all in stride. It was definitely an odd day, but we're going to come out of it just fine," he said.
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