A spectacular mid afternoon blaze struck Chicago's west side on Thursday Oct 9. The fire involved a Chicago Park District Warehouse, located within the Garfield Park Conservatory complex. The building was completely involved and numerous small explosions were heard as the various hazardous contents of the building burned.
Members had an extremely difficult battle as access to the grounds was very limited due to construction of surrounding grounds and renovations taking place throughout the site.
All water had to be brought in from surrounding streets and leadouts in excess of 500 feet were needed. In line pumping and 4 inch hose were used extensively. Some leadouts were so lengthy it took 3 engines and over 1500 feet of hose to complete. Numerous ladder pipes, towers, deck guns and Multi-versals were used.
A tremendous exposure to a very large adjacent warehouse structure was successfully controlled under very trying conditions.The Garfield Park Conservatory is a very famous and historic landmark and this fire had the potential to be devasting to the city.
