For the first time since the deadly Loop fire on Oct. 17, employees moved back into their offices at the Cook County Administration Building Wednesday, while investigators worked to determine if the blaze was arson or accidentally set.
“A few people feel insecure, obviously,” County Board President John Stroger said as he officially reopened the building at 69 W. Washington St. Wednesday morning. “But I think my presence here, the fact that I’m going to be on the 35th floor, should offer some measure of security to some of the people who want to come back.”
The move-in came after Fire Department officials said they had turned over their report on the blaze to police. The report, first disclosed in the Tribune Wednesday, calls the fire “incendiary” in nature, meaning it was started by a person, and says the flames were fueled by gasoline, sources said.
Investigators said that does not necessarily mean the fire, which killed six people, was arson, and that the fire could have been an accident. The probe remains in an early stage and is expected to progress slowly, authorities said.
Although State’s Atty. Richard Devine has said a fact-finding grand jury is possible, sources said Wednesday there were no immediate plans for one.
Even with the report complete, sources said, differing opinions remained among investigators on whether the fire was set deliberately. That determination will be made by police.
“The report has been handed over to us, and we’re incorporating it into our ongoing bomb and arson investigation,” police spokesman David Bayless said. He called the report significant but said it would not change the direction of the department’s probe.
“We have different goals,” Bayless said. “The Fire Department’s goal is to determine the origin of the fire. Our goal is to determine whether or not criminal action is involved.”
John Gorman, a spokesman for Devine’s office, said prosecutors will work closely with police.
He called the results of the report “troubling.”
“Assistant state’s attorneys from the Special Prosecutions Bureau are consulting with police investigators on a daily basis on these new developments,” Gorman said.
Immediately after the fire, investigators focused on light fixtures in the 12th floor storage room where the fire started, but testing of the fixtures was inconclusive.
Earlier this month, the state crime lab found traces of gasoline on a piece of debris taken from the same area as the suspect light fixtures.
Until recently, several groups investigating the fire had focused primarily on how firefighters battled the flames and whether building management acted appropriately when a security guard ordered a complete evacuation of the building.
All six workers who died were found in the southeast stairwell, where they were overcome by smoke after finding locked stairwell doors.
Three of those who died worked in Public Guardian Patrick Murphy’s office. Murphy, who has been outspoken in his criticism of how the building is run, said he remains skeptical the fire was deliberately set.
“If some guy started it because he wanted to burn up some files, he should be charged with murder if they get the guy,” Murphy said. “But nevertheless, these people should not have died if the building had been run competently.”
Officials with the secretary of state’s office, which occupies the 12th floor, said about 30 employees had access to the storage room.
Investigators have reinterviewed many of those people in recent weeks, including secretary of state employees and members of the building staff.
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Office spokesman David Druker said Wednesday there were five or six employees working in the office at the time of the fire, and none has reported seeing anything suspicious.
Druker said the office registers corporation names and some files were burned in the fire. But, he said, secretary of state officials believe all burned records were backed up.
It could be months before the building is completely rehabbed with sprinklers and other safety devices, but with the 37-story structure’s reopening, county employees began moving back onto the 30th, 31st, 32nd and 35th floors. City inspectors cleared the way this week to reoccupy the top six floors.
Stroger declined to comment about the Fire Department’s report, saying he had not read it yet.
Adrienne Mebane, Devine’s chief of staff, was trapped with co-workers in the southeast stairwell before finding an open door on the 27th floor and eventually fleeing to safety. She said returning to the building was important.
“I’m happy to get back,” Mebane said. “As far as I’m concerned, you have to make that next step. … A lot of people are ready to get back to normal.”