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Fire starts in basement of Des Plaines motel

Sprinklers kept a fire at a Des Plaines motel confined to the basement area where it started, according to fire officials.

Des Plaines fire Battalion Chief Ken Palenik said units were dispatched at 6;04 p.m. Friday to the Comfort Inn O' Hare, 2175 E. Touhy Ave.

What firefighters found, he said, was a "small fire in a storeroom. A lot of smoke in the basement. It took us a while to get the smoke cleared out of the basement."

The upper floors, he said, were hardly affected, with not much more than a little smoke.

There were no injuries. He said there were probably about 90 people checked into the motel at the time.

The building is habitable, although there were electrical problems. The Des Plaines building department was on the scene, as well as ComEd.

The fire is still under investigation, although it appears to have started among some chairs that were stored in the basement. Damage has yet to be determined.

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