FIRE DESTROYS FACTORY
A factory was destroyed by a fire Tuesday in the Hermosa neighborhood on the Northwest Side.
Crews responded by 5 p.m. to the fire at Newly Weds Foods in the 4100 block of West Wrightwood Avenue, the Chicago Fire Dept. said.
The fire was upgraded by 7 p.m. to a hazmat scene and a Level 5 alarm, in which 20 additional engines were called. The department said the building had collapsed and “will be a total loss.”
Crews were “turning the corner” on the fire about 8:50 p.m., the department said in a tweet. By then, the roof of the adjacent building had collapsed.
“We had heavy fire in many locations,” the department said. “This fire had one-third of on-duty companies in the city responding.”
When the fire was detected, employees evacuated themselves from the building and were all accounted for, the department said.
One firefighter was transported for a “very minor issue,” according to the fire department, which did not immediately reply to a request for details.
Photos showed flames spreading to the Metra Milwaukee District North tracks, where trains stopped for over an hour for “fire adjacent to the tracks,” Metra said in a statement.
The Department of Water Management increased water pressure in the area to help supply the engines, the fire department said.
Newly Weds Foods is a global corporation founded in Chicago in 1932. The company makes batters and breadings for the frozen food service industry.