For the second time in two months, a small fire at the Cook County Criminal Courts Administration Building has left officials pointing fingers at each other over handling of the response to a relatively minor incident.
Employees streaming from the building at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday said Cook County sheriff’s officers ordered them to evacuate, a decision that is supposed to be made by the Chicago Fire Department.
Cook County State’s Atty. Richard Devine issued a letter to Cook County Board President John Stroger, Sheriff Michael Sheahan and Chief Criminal Court Judge Paul Biebel Jr. late Wednesday calling for a “clear and precise protocol” for handling such emergencies.
Sheriff’s officials said they were responding to a building engineer who ordered the 14-story building at 2650 S. California Ave. cleared; but a Fire Department spokeswoman said building managers spoken to by fire crews said they had given no such order. said he did not believe the order was given either.
“We can’t possibly order a building evacuation, it’s the Fire Department’s call,” said the building engineer, Turhan Erel.
No one was injured in the small electrical fire in the building’s basement.
The response to such incidents is sensitive in the wake of the fire Oct. 17 at the Cook County Administration Building at 69 W. Washington St., a blaze that killed six county workers in locked stairwells after a building engineer ordered an evacuation.
Devine’s letter said: “This obvious lack of effective procedures for evacuating the building is totally unacceptable. The chaos this morning comes less than a year after six employees died in the fire at the Administration Building at 69 W. Washington.
“The reviews since that tragedy point to a lack of communication and protocols as causes for the loss of life.”
Devine also cited an incident at the courts administration facility. on July 22 when food service employees cooking ribs overwhelmed an air vent with smoke, bringing fire crews to the building. Employees said they had no direction on what to do, with some fleeing down stairwells and some choosing to stay at their desks.
“Since that incident, we have asked several times for fire drills at the 26th Street facility; but thus far, our requests have gone unheeded,” wrote Devine.
“I know one thing for certain: it is appalling that almost a year after the Oct. 17th fire, the fire safety procedures at 26th Street are so inadequate.”
More Top Picks Beats Pill Plus