Photo credit: Network Video Productions
(Chicago) Two firefighters suffered minor injuries while battling a fire that tore through three restaurants and a mobile phone store in the South Loop Tuesday morning and briefly halted CTA Green Line trains on a neighboring track.
The injured firefighters — one hurt his ankle, the other hurt his back — slipped on sheets of ice that formed at Cermak Road and State Street as dozens of firefighters doused the blaze in freezing weather, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
The two-alarm blaze began just before 3 a.m. and was extinguished by 7:30 a.m., said Chicago Fire Chief Joe Roccosalva.
Service on the Green Line between Roosevelt and 35th, which was suspended for several hours, was restored about 8 a.m. The fire occurred just below a new Green Line station being built at Cermak.
Bus nos. 21 and 29 were also rerouted in the area during the blaze, but have since resumed normal service.
The fire destroyed Jerk Villa (a Jamaican jerk chicken restaurant), Dragon Fire (an Asian grill and sushi restaurant), Sharks (a fish and chicken restaurant) and a cellular phone store.
All the businesses were housed in the same building, which suffered heavy damage and will most likely need to be torn down, Roccosalva said.
–Sun-Times and Sun-Times Media Wire
© Copyright 2014 Sun-Times Media, LLC
