Chicago Fire Department Says Burn Patterns Point To Human Cause Of Deadly High-Rise Fire

June 30, 2004
Chicago Fire Department officials have broken months of official silence to explain why burn patterns and traces of gasoline in a supply room point to an unknown person as the source of a deadly fire at a downtown high-rise.
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CHICAGO (AP) -- Chicago Fire Department officials have broken months of official silence to explain why burn patterns and traces of gasoline in a supply room point to an unknown person as the source of a deadly fire at a downtown high-rise.

Six people died in the Oct. 17 fire at the Cook County Administration Building and investigators from state and local agencies have developed competing theories for how the blaze began.

An expert retained by a Cook County-appointed commission investigating the fire said that in his opinion the fire was accidental and probably caused by a faulty light fixture.

But burn patterns showed the fire burned upward among boxes lining a 12th-floor supply room's back and side walls, disproving the theory that the fire was started by a faulty light, Lt. Terry Sheppard said Tuesday.

``An examination of the supply room revealed no indication of electrical activity or heat-producing appliances as factors in the incident,'' Sheppard said.

Investigators also found gasoline amid charred paper material about 30 inches off the floor, Sheppard said.

Fire Commissioner Cortez Trotter also responded to criticism that the department's investigation was not thorough, calling the report released Tuesday by the Office of Fire Investigation ``far from skimpy by anyone's definition.''

Lawyers who are already suing the building's management and security companies said they would have their own experts examine the reports and crime lab data.

Tuesday's news conference came after the city dropped its objection to the release of the office of fire investigation's report by a Cook County judge hearing civil lawsuits.

A Police Department investigation will be completed soon, a spokesman said.

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