Updated: Fire Breaks Out in Wicker Park Alley, Causes Power Outage (Again)
By chicago-pipeline at July 6, 2012 | 4:39 pm | Print
Around 5:10PM today, Chicago firefighters were hard at work extinguishing an overhead blaze that appeared to be coming from an electrical transformer box on the south side of the El Tracks, in the alley behind 1500 block of N. Milwaukee.
The fire continued down the circuit wire, setting the pavement aflame (see pic).
Jose Prado of Lubinski Furniture, 1550 N. Milwaukee Ave., reported to The Pipeline (which has a ‘pop up’ newsroom at Lubinksi’s) that he smelled smoke coming from the alley.
Prado, pictured, then went out to the alley and saw that there was a fire.
Within less than two minutes, firefighters were on the scene.
The Pipeline is currently trying to find out the cause of the fire, though it can be speculated that since electrical power also went out at the same time of the fire (specifically at 4:59PM), the fire was an electrical one. There was an electrical power outage last week, too, on Thursday, June 28th.
A ComEd spokeswoman returned our call at 6:26PM yesterday, and left a voicemail, saying, “Hi. This is ComEd returning your call about an outage on North Milwaukee [Ave.]. There was a report of potentially a pole fire there and the fire dept. is on the scene, ComEd is on the scene as well, and the impact is an outage affecting 12 customers at this time.”
Rodan, Reckless Records, Lubinski Furniture, Taxim, and People Lounge all lost power as well. Does anyone know what time power was restored?
Jack, 10 months ago
It is not restored, as of 833 am on Saturday.
Source: my apartment is affected.
Rico, 10 months ago
Is the power back on?
chicago-pipeline, 10 months ago
not sure. there is no answer at Lubinski’s, so i am thinking it might be out still. a resident on 1500 block of Leavitt at Bell said about an hour ago (11 am) that her power is out, too
jack, 10 months ago
Power still out.
chicago-pipeline, 10 months ago
jack, is your power still out? i spoke with comed last night and they said that the original problem had been fixed but there were now three or four different outages and that their power had not yet been restored as of 7pm last night.
Dan, 10 months ago
What is a pop-up newsroom?
chicago-pipeline, 10 months ago
just a temporary office. we have a desk on showroom floor by the carpets that we use a few times a week. if you need furniture or have a news tip, pop on by.