Firefighters battle massive, gas-fueled warehouse fire on Near West Side

CHICAGO — Firefighters battled a massive, gas-fueled warehouse fire on the Near West Side overnight Saturday into Sunday morning.

Officials say the fire broke out at Universal Scrap Metals around 9 p.m. Saturday, and firefighters were still battling the blaze early Sunday morning. Many of the 120 firefighters were on the scene for 10 hours and still working.

Universal Scrap Metals, a family-owned metal processing and recycling facility founded about 50 years ago, is located at 2500 West Fulton Street. The business takes up more than a block at Fulton Street and Artesian Avenue. Flames could be seen erupting from the back of the warehouse, as well as thick, black smoke rising from the blaze.

Fire officials report that Peoples Gas had been trying to shut off the gas, which was fueling the fire, and finally succeeded in doing so about 4 a.m. Sunday.

But multiple parts of the building have collapsed, and construction equipment has been brought in to remove bricks from collapsed walls so that firefighters can get deeper into the building.

“The size of the building, the materials in the building, it’s very hard to get to,” Chicago Fire Department District Chief Robert Jurewicz said Sunday morning. “Because of the way the building is built, almost like a fortress, it’s very hard to get water on all the components in there.”

Green flames were also visible, which indicates the presence of copper in the blaze. A Universal Scrap Metals employee told WGN-TV there were about 2 million pounds of copper inside the facility.

“They have piles and piles of copper,” Jurewicz confirmed.

Another employee said no workers were in the building when the fire broke out. Chicago fire officials reported no injuries as of early Sunday morning.

The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

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