Loop Fire Report Is Due This Week
Chicago Tribune, 12/16/2003Metro Section
The Chicago Fire Department’s investigative office is expected to release its report this week on the Oct. 17 blaze that killed six people at the Cook County Administration Building.
The report likely will not include a cause of the fire, which remains unclear after tests on a suspect light fixture were inconclusive.
Investigators continue to reinterview witnesses after gasoline was found on one piece of debris from the fire site.
Karen Seimetz, deputy corporation counsel for the city, said the report would be given to attorneys representing clients suing or being sued in wake of the fire, but the document will not be given to the public.
Her comments were made at a court hearing before Cook County Judge William Maddux. Seimetz and plaintiff’s attorney Robert Clifford sparred briefly over whether the city should be required to release certain documents, including transcripts from emergency communications, and whether the plaintiffs’ attorneys will be allowed to question Cortez Trotter, executive director of the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications.
