Bartlett warehouse fire finally extinguished, investigation underway

More than a dozen investigators have begun sifting through the rubble of a massive document storage warehouse in Bartlett in an attempt to determine what caused the blaze that began nearly a week ago and burned for six days.

Bartlett Fire Protection District Chief William Gabrenya said the investigators had only recently been given clearance to begin their work at the gutted 250,000-square-foot, four-story warehouse at 1200 Humbracht Circle.

The chief called the fire that began just before 10 a.m. Feb. 3 "pretty much extinguished."

"We're calling it out, but there are tiny, little hot spots we're still dealing with," Gabrenya said.

Gabrenya said investigators are not only trying to determine what caused the fire, but also where it began.

No injuries were reported from the initial attack on the blaze or in the days that followed when firefighters worked carefully to remove walls of the building to get to the remaining flames.

Gabrenya said the warehouse was stacked floor to ceiling with boxes of documents at the time of the fire. He believes the structural integrity of the building was compromised when the sprinkler system activated, soaking the boxes of paper, which added weight to the racks holding the documents, which failed under the stress of the additional weight.

When the racks began to tumble, that took out the building's sprinkler system and opened the roof, which allowed the fire to breathe and spread, he added.

Gabrenya said he's never experienced anything like what his agency has dealt with over the past week, and remained grateful that no injuries occurred.

"These racks came down within 16 minutes of us receiving that alarm and could've killed firefighters really easily," he said. "We had firefighters blown off their feet when those racks came down."

Most of the contents of the warehouse are expected to be a total loss, but Gabrenya said there was a three-story vault inside that measures about 30-feet-by-10-feet that appears "intact" and in "good shape."

Gabrenya said the agency is also in the process of cataloging all the damaged and destroyed firefighting equipment as well as all the additional expenses of having to staff the site of the inferno for a week. He is hopeful the owner of the warehouse, Access Corp., will cover much of those costs.

"There's a ton of damage to equipment and a lot of overtime," he said. "We had to order (portable toilets) and bring in propane tanks to heat the tents here to keep our crews warm."

Gabrenya added that dozens of neighboring departments assisted with equipment and personnel throughout the week, and he thanked community members who dropped off food and beverages to firefighters manning the blaze since it began.

"A lot of people really stepped up, and it hasn't gone unnoticed," Gabrenya said.