On October 17, 2003, a deadly fire at the Cook County Administration Building claimed the lives of six people who were trapped in a locked stairwell. The disaster at the county’s high-rise building located in the Central Chicago Loop District, impacted citizens and government leaders statewide and raised serious concerns regarding building safety, crisis preparedness and emergency response.
The Illinois Governor hired Witt Associates to conduct an independent emergency management and building code assessment evaluating the factors that contributed to the loss of lives.
The Witt Associates team was led by the former Deputy Director of the California Office of Emergency Services and the Incident Commander who had investigated the tragic bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. The team also included world-renowned experts of human behavior during fires, as well as fire experts with the National Institute of Standards and Technology who developed a computer simulation to study the behavior of the fire.
Witt Associates worked directly with the Office of the Governor, the Deputy Chief of Staff for Public Safety and the Homeland Security Advisor and coordinated among the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, the Office of the State Fire Marshal, the Department of Labor, the Department of Professional Regulation, the State Highway Patrol and the Building Standards Commission.
The final product provided the client with an After Action Review that included findings on what contributed to the spread of the fire and what led to the fatalities, as well as specific recommendations for the City of Chicago, Cook County, real estate owners, building management and building tenants to prevent future loss of life and property in high-rise buildings. It also suggested a course of action for supporting local units of government, the private sector and the public in strengthening fire safety for commercial and residential high-rise buildings.