Nine months after the deadly Loop fire that started in the storage room of her office unit, Eileen Richmond and her co-workers are struggling to come to terms with a second fire less than two weeks ago.
Richmond, 50, who witnessed the Oct. 17 fire that killed six people, says there is an eerie similarity between that fire and the one June 25 in her new office: Both broke out just before 5 p.m. on a Friday.
After the October fire, which started on the 12th floor of the county building on Washington Street, Richmond and her co-workers in the secretary of state’s office were moved to the 11th floor at 17 N. State St.
Police say a small, suspicious fire broke out at about 4:55 p.m. June 25 in that office, at least temporarily changing the course of their investigation into last fall’s fire.
Chicago police had been ready to conclude that gas found after the fire at 69 W. Washington St. was not used to start that fire. But now the department will not make any statement until it finishes investigating the latest fire. A police spokesman has said investigators will try to determine if the two fires are related. If a link is found, it could strengthen a developing criminal investigation into the first fire, about which there has been little consensus.
The Fire Department has ruled the first fire “incendiary,” and a county commission investigating the fire is expected to call the cause “undetermined” in a report expected to be released this week.
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Compiled from news services
