WEST TOWN — Firefighters worked through the night battling a huge blaze at a West Town pallet warehouse that lit up the sky, officials said Tuesday morning.
The fire started around 11 p.m. Monday at Bolita Pallet Repair, 2013 W. Ferdinand St., just west of the Damen and Grand avenues, according to the Chicago Fire Department.
The cause of the blaze is unknown, though a son of the owner of the business said it could have been arson. Jeff Lyle, deputy district chief for the Chicago Fire Dept., said investigators were still looking into what may have sparked the inferno.
"As of right now, there is no cause known and we are working together with the police arson unit and ATF [Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms], but that is standard in an extra alarm fire in a commercial building," Lyle said.
By Tuesday morning, the fire appeared to have been extinguished, though smoke still was coming from charred piles of wooden pallets as onlookers watched from an alley blocked off by police.
[DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser]
Bolita Pallet Repair owner Ruben Rodriguez and his son Kevin Rodriguez were on the scene around 7:40 a.m. Tuesday and surveying the damage.
Kevin Rodriguez said no workers were in the building at the time of the fire and he does not know how it started, though he said he wouldn't rule out arson.
The warehouse shuts off all its electricity at night, Kevin Rodriguez said, so he doesn't believe the fire could have been started electrically.
Their entire inventory was destroyed in the fire, Rodriguez said, and five employees will be out of work, at least temporarily.
According to ABC7, flames also spread to the attic of a two-story house next door where Felipe Munoz has lived for the last 18 years with his family.
"Everything is damaged. In the basement, the water comes about two feet high. I never see this. I feel so bad, my wife, my daughter. Everybody feeling not good," Munoz told ABC7.
[Colleen Dorich/Ukrainian Village Neighborhood Watch]
Les Hagen, who has a business across the street, said he got a call from the Fire Department early Tuesday and arrived at his business to see that boxes of scrap wood were on fire.
Hagen said the blaze spread and damaged to his company, which also stores pallets, at 2029 W. Hubbard St.
"We're always worried about fire. We've been in business since 1978 and never had a fire," Hagen said.
Arely Bencini, a waitress at Tommy's Grill, 456 N. Damen Ave., said she knows several of the workers from the Bolita Pallet, who come to the restaurant for coffee and breakfast.
"I'm sad that it happened to them. There [are] a lot of people without jobs now," Bencini said.
Fire-damaged yard [DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser]
Making progress propane tanks main concern Damen & Grand 3-11/Level 1 Haz-Mat pic.twitter.com/SBm0HrUUyU
— Chicago Fire Media (@CFDMedia) September 20, 2016
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