Spring 2005 Newsletter: Fire!

On December 6, 2004, I left work at a normal time, went to my exercise class, got home at about 6:30 p.m., and turned on the TV – my office building was on fire, with flames coming out of the windows – on all the local channels. The office of the Cancer Research Foundation is located on the 37th floor of the LaSalle Bank Building at 135 South LaSalle Street in Chicago. The largest high-rise fire in Chicago's history was happening. The fire department sent 400 firefighters, who checked every single office for people working late, and got everyone out alive. The 5-hour fire injured 39 people including 24 firefighters, but there were no fatalities.

Then the firefighters attacked the fire, which originated on the 29th floor, and spread to the 30th floor. The fire investigators concluded that this fire was caused by an electrical malfunction above the ceiling on the 29th floor. It is said that more than a million gallons of water was used to fight this fire and that temperatures during the fire reached more than 2,000 degrees, hot enough to melt the steel beams that support the building. However, at 135 South LaSalle, the steel beams were protected by clay tiles, which deflected the fire.

After the fire was extinguished, windows on floors above the fire were opened, to clear some of the smoke. All of our papers that were not in drawers or files were scattered on the floor or blown out of the windows.

Because our office suffered only smoke damage, we assumed that we would be out of the office for a few days, and that was that. Nope. All of our documents in all of our files, and all of our furniture, had to be de-smoked offsite by a firm that does this work. So, my new office was my dining room table at home, office records, telephone, copier, fax and computer sharing space with all the trimmings of Christmas. Unlike many other tenants, we were very lucky that we could access our mail daily through the post office box we had opened several years ago.

Repairing the damaged elevators, cleaning all the offices and common areas, rewiring much of the building – amazingly, the Cancer Research Foundation was the first tenant to return to the 37th floor – on February 1st, almost 2 months after the fire.

Sharon Swanson,
Executive Director