Smoke billowed through the streets at Michigan Avenue and Roosevelt Road Tuesday morning as heavy winds fanned the flames of a three alarm commercial building fire.
Firefighters battled through low visibility and stiff, fire-feeding breezes on the 1300 block of South Michigan Avenue after a fire broke out at a vacant building around 2:30 a.m. Workers had the blaze under control by around 6:30 a.m., but not before it gutted the structure.
Michigan and Wabash avenues were closed between Roosevelt Road and 14th Street. Also closed while firefighters worked were 13th and 14th streets.
Crews arrived around 2:30 a.m. to find flames shooting through the roof. High winds helped spread the fire through the empty building, destroying the structure. The building, an attorney’s office, was believed to be vacant at the time the fire broke out.
The main concern for firefighters, after determining the building to be a loss, was keeping the flames from spreading to other nearby high rises. The building is adjacent to The Dance Center of Columbia College of Chicago, and other commercial buildings, but none was singed.
