50 People Displaced After Apartment Fire On North Side

By Anna Deem in News on Dec 12, 2009 8:00PM

About 50 residents of a horseshoe-shaped apartment complex located at 4400-4412 N. Ashland Ave. have been displaced following an extra-alarm fire on Friday night. No residents were injured in the fire, but two firefighters suffered minor injuries, said Fire Media Affairs Director Larry Langford. The fire was reported at about 6 p.m. and began in or near a first floor unit on the northwest corner of the building and spread upwards.

The building, which has 36 total units, was quickly evacuated and the power and gas were turned off. The fire scene was secured by the fire department around 6:30 p.m., however fire marshals remained at the scene until 8:30 p.m. with a canine unit to check for accelerants, due to the rapid nature of the fire, Langford said. The cause of the fire remained under investigation on Friday night. [Chicago Sun-Times]