Roof of former Wheeling Garden Fresh Market ignites

Officials are trying to determine the cause of a Sunday morning fire on the roof of the vacant Garden Fresh Market site in Wheeling.

No one was injured and the fire was quickly put out by Wheeling firefighters.

Wheeling Fire Department Battalion Chief Steve Kosick said the fire was reported at 9:18 a.m. Kosick said firefighters found flames emerging from the rear roof area of the building at 1786 W. Hintz Road, which was vacated when the store moved into the old Dominick's site at Buffalo Grove Road and Dundee Road.

The fire was extinguished within 15 minutes. Although the fire was confined to a small area, crews had to remove a 20-by-20-foot square section of the roof to protect the underlying insulation, officials said.

The underlying material included some metal decking and some foam insulation composed of a petroleum-based product that could potentially become involved easily, officials said.

"We removed more than was involved initially, because you have to make sure you go beyond the initial area that was burning, to make sure it doesn't keep spreading beneath the roof," Kosick said.