Northbrook fire Division Chief Tim Cassidy happened to be in the right place at the right time when he saw thick black smoke billowing from Dania Furniture, 1001 Skokie Blvd., at about 3:25 p.m. Wednesday.
Cassidy said he was just a few blocks north of the scene when he noticed the smoke, and he immediately drove to its source. In the Dania parking lot, he saw men working on the roof of the store, he said.
“I spoke with maybe a dozen or so workers on the roof and asked how many there were up there and told them to get down,” Cassidy said. “There were propane tanks on the roof, and the building was occupied when I got there.
“Business was as usual inside, so [shoppers] were unaware, so I pulled the fire alarm.”
Employees and shoppers evacuated the building immediately. There were no injuries, Cassidy said.
The fire lasted 20-30 minutes before crews were able to extinguish it, he said. Three or four Northbrook engines responded to the incident, Cassidy said.
Unexpectedly, the fire did not activate the emergency sprinkler system at the store, he said.
“I feel fortunate that I was close by just because the fire didn’t activate the fire safety protection system — the alarm — so the neighbors to the office building to the south saw it and were able to call it in, as I understand,” he said. “And I guess lucky is a good word. I was able to pull the alarm and get everyone out … and I’m glad no one was hurt.”
Cassidy declined to speculate on the cause of the fire, which was contained to the roof, he said. He was not certain what kind of work was being done on the roof when the fire started, Cassidy said.
“They were doing roof work, but I don’t know the details. I know that they were still up there when I arrived, so I ordered them to get down,” he said.
Roosevelt Zito, of Naperville, who was working at Autohaus on Edens, 1600 Frontage Road, just a few blocks south, said he knew instantly there was a fire when he and his colleagues saw the large amount of black smoke in the air.
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