Cook County to pay $9 million to settle building fire lawsuits

Six defendants, including Cook County government, agreed Tuesday to a $26 million settlement in a civil suit filed on behalf of victims of a 2003 Chicago high-rise fire. Three others named in the lawsuit did not settle and will defend themselves in a trial scheduled to begin Monday.

Inverness attorney Robert Clifford filed the lawsuits after an Oct. 17, 2003, fire at the Cook County Administration Building in the West Loop killed six people and injured 16.

Subsequent investigations led to highly critical assessments of Cook County, for ignoring a recommendation to install sprinklers, and of the Chicago Fire Department, for various communication and strategic breakdowns, including a 90-minute delay in locating the victims. Separate county and state investigations also faulted building managers.

Those killed were found in a smoke-filled stairwell. A number of witnesses told investigators that firefighters instructed them to take the stairs up, to stay above the 12-floor blaze. But some who followed those directions died when they could not find any open door to escape the stairwell.

Besides Cook County, defendants who came to terms Tuesday, according to Clifford, were Folgers Architects, Competitive Piping, Aargus Security Systems Inc., BGK Security Services Inc. and SimplexGrinnell, which specializes in fire detection and alarm systems.

Remaining defendants, in addition to the city of Chicago, are 69 West Washington Management and UBM, the general management company for a reconstruction project at the building two years before the fire occurred.