Elk Grove Village fire injures 1, produces huge smoke cloud near O'Hare Airport
ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill. (WLS) -- A fire in Elk Grove Village created a huge cloud of thick smoke near O'Hare Airport.
The fire broke out at around 6 a.m.
The fire got pretty big and fire officials said they had to notify the control tower at O'Hare of what was going on.
Chopper 7 flew above the scene of the semi-tractor repair facility where a building, four trailers, two tractors and seven cars were burning.
"So there was a significant amount of black smoke a heavy volume of black smoke mostly on the exterior of the building ranging between 50 to 60 feet in the air," acting Elk Grove Village Fire Chief Nathan Gac said.
The fire broke out at the business which is located inside an industrial park where workers nearby heard loud booms.
"So we were working right and then we heard like four loud like explosions," worker Martin Juarez, who works nearby, said. "At first we thought it was a plane crash because we're close to O'Hare but uh nah it was just across the street and we saw the flames coming up."
By around 7:45 a.m., most of the smoke from the fire had died down but firefighters from Elk Grove, Bensenville and Woodale continued to chase hot spots.
Meanwhile, one person was injured.
"There was also one worker from the business who had encountered significant burns. that patient was treated by our crews and taken to Loyola Hospital," acting Chief Nathan Gac said.
The EPA and water reclamation are on site to monitor water run-off for any kind of contaminants like diesel fuel or used motor oil as investigators work to determine what caused this fire.
Fire officials said the fire did not have any impact on O'Hare, but it did cause a power outage in the area when the flames spread to overhead power lines, so ComEd has been making repairs.
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