No injuries in construction fire at South Elgin fitness center
A crew of workers using a torch accidentally ignited panels of foam insulation Friday afternoon on the roof of a 45,000-square-foot L.A. Fitness Center under construction on Randall Road in South Elgin.
No one was injured in the blaze, which sent black smoke into the afternoon sky for at least 40 minutes and was visible for miles.
Some workers escaped on lifts.
"One of them reported he shinnied down the side beam (in the building's atrium) to get down," South Elgin Fire Chief Joe Cluchey said.
Ladder trucks from the South Elgin Countryside Fire District and Elgin Fire Department doused the fire, which hit the building's northwest corner and rained ash several hundred yards into the parking lot.
The large fitness center at 486 Randall Road is scheduled to open in March and is one of the last large buildings to be erected at the Randall Pointe shopping center. All of the masonry is up, but windows have not yet been installed.
The sheets of foam insulation were in stack about six feet tall and 20 feet wide and were awaiting installation atop the metal roof.
Cluchey said crews would continue to ensure the fire did not reignite and that crews would slowly remove the damaged materials from the roof.
"The roofing materials are still smoldering on the roof. But all the water to knock that down with this cold weather creates ice, creates extra weight for a building that's not structurally stable yet," he said. "We're not going to risk our lives over undeveloped property."
No damage estimate was available.
The Pingree Grove Fire Department also assisted.