Small fire in lobby of Cook County building forces evacuationon June 23, 2021 at 3:25 pm

Someone lit fire to a pile of paper in the George W. Dunne Cook County Office Building early Wednesday, forcing over a hundred people to evacuate but causing no injuries.

Firefighters quickly extinguished the small fire in an ATM vestibule at 69 W. Washington, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.

The fire was caused by person who entered the vestibule around 2:15 a.m., where someone else was sleeping, Langford said.

“Someone grabbed a bunch of deposit envelopes, paper supplies and lit them. That was pretty much it,” Langford said.

A Chicago police spokesperson said no one was in custody.

In 2003, six people died in a fire at the building after they became trapped in smoke-filled stairwells by doors that locked behind them.

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