Cook County Administrative Building Fire

Introduction

Fires are sometimes common in buildings, and it causes damage to property, deaths, and
injuries. Usually, different types of buildings are affected by fire in different ways. A good
example is the Cook County Administrative building, which was uniquely affected by the fire.
This report identifies and describes the building construction type employed in the Cook County
Administrative Building, the challenges in suppressing fires in this type of construction, the
hurdles faced by firefighters while responding to the Cook County Administrative Building
High-rise Fire, and how the fire was eventually put out. The final part recommends strategies for
preventing these kinds of incidents and deduces potential risks to firefighters when responding to
fires in high-rise buildings.

Literature Review

A critical examination of the Cook County Administrative building indicates it is a high-
rise building. Typically, high-rise buildings are often multistory, tall, and require elevators to
access the floors. According to the International Conference on Fire Safety in High-rise
buildings, such buildings are beyond the reach of aerial ladder equipment (Corbett & Brannigan,
2019). The Cook County Administrative building comprises numerous floors primarily accessed
using elevators.
There are numerous challenges associated with suppressing fires in high-rise buildings.
One of the challenges is difficulties controlling smoke, which makes it difficult for firefighters to
breathe effectively. It is vital to acknowledge that the air handling system of high-rise buildings
makes it difficult to control smoke. Additionally, firefighters often face challenges in evacuating
the occupants of high-rise buildings, especially when it has many floors with several hundred or

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thousands of occupants (Corbett & Brannigan, 2019). The evacuation process often takes much
time, which could be used to suppress the fire from further spreading.
In that regard, the firefighters responding to the Cook County Administrative building
fire faced many challenges. One of the challenges was difficulty in controlling smoke. The
firefighters found it difficult to control the smoke, making it challenging to breathe smoothly
during the operation. Additionally, the firefighters faced a huge hurdle in evaluating occupants of
the building because all of them were to use the stairs as there were high risks of using the
elevators. Notably, the firefighters had to engage in division of labor, as some of them helped in
evacuation while others suppressed the fire.
Specific features of the Cook County Administrative building led to the loss of lives. One
of the features is poor masonry closures, which often risk collapsing during a fire incident. In the
event of a collapse, the risk of death for firefighters is high. Additionally, the Cook County
Administrative building has inadequate standpipe systems, which avail fire protection water to
suppress the fire and its spread (Madrzykowski & Walton, 2004). Some firefighters in the
building died from fire burns because there were inadequate standpipe systems to suppress the
fire quickly.
After a long period of trying to suppress the fire, a process that was primarily derailed by
limited water supply from the standpipe systems, sprinklers provided the solution. Upon the
arrival of automatic fire sprinklers, the firefighters directed the sprinklers to the source of the
fire, extinguishing it within a few hours (Madrzykowski & Walton, 2004).
Conclusion and Recommendations

High-rise buildings are associated with numerous problems that make it difficult to
suppress fires faster before they can damage property and result in losing lives. The Cook

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County Administrative building fire was a challenge to the firefighters because they had limited
knowledge about the interior features of the building. Notably, the Cook County Administrative
building fire could have been prevented by installing effective smoke detectors and adequate
standpipe systems to suppress the fire promptly. One way to reduce the risks facing firefighters
in high-rise buildings is to create numerous exits and install air handling systems to make
breathing easy.

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References

Corbett, G. P., & Brannigan, F. L. (2019). Brannigan’s building construction for the fire service.
Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Madrzykowski, D. & Walton, W. D. (2004). Cook County Administration Building fire, 69 West
Washington, Chicago, Illinois, October 17, 2003: Heat release rate experiments and FDS
simulations. NIST Special Publication SP-1021.