Chicago Fire Department battles extra-alarm warehouse fire in Back of the Yards
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Massive flames could be seen from miles away as a fire spread across a warehouse Thursday morning in the Back of the Yards neighborhood.
The fire broke out just before 9 a.m. at Evans Food Products in 4100-block of South Halsted Street, according to the Chicago Fire Department.
Grease products inside the building made the fire worse and the location of the warehouse also worried crews.
"This building is connected to multiple buildings in the backside," said Jim McDonough, CFD 1st District Chief. "They're all non combustible. Some of them are one story some are two stories where all the food processing equipment is kept."
All of the employees inside could be seen safely evacuating the building as crews got the fire under control.
The high winds across Chicago also caused some problems for firefighters.
"Fire creates its own wind so it doesn't help to have 20 mile-per-hour winds today and it seems they were coming out to the southwest it did hinder us a little bit in the beginning," said McDonough.
McDonough said he doesn't believe there are any code violations in the building and the alarms were working inside.
"The place is very clean," he said. "I've been in there two to three times before so it's very well-managed. well-kept so I don't think that's an issue."
CFD said a cause of the fire is being investigated.
