Des Plaines factory fire under investigation

Des Plaines fire officials are investigating the cause of a Monday morning fire in a factory that resulted in an estimated $300,000 in damage.

Smoke was visible from the Bradrock Industries building at 75 Bradrock Drive when firefighters arrived on the scene at 8:23 a.m., Fire Chief Alan Wax said. The fire was raging in a room inside the roughly 15,000-square-foot factory.

All the workers already had evacuated the building before firefighters arrived, Wax said. Des Plaines fire crews, assisted by an Elk Grove Village fire engine, put the fire out in less than a half-hour.

The damage inside the room where the fire occurred was extensive, and there was smoke and water damage throughout the factory, Wax said. The property loss was high because the room housed expensive machines.

A factory employee who tried to put out the fire with an extinguisher was feeling weak and was treated and released at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. Wax said there were no sprinklers in the factory building, which had been grandfathered in when the city adopted a sprinkler ordinance.