A nasty electrical vault fire prompted the swift evacuation of a Chicago hotel on Wednesday morning as firefighters raced to tackle the immense blaze .
The fire broke out at the Soho House Chicago hotel near Green and Randolph streets at approximately 4:02 a.m. CDT. Guests reported hearing a "loud kind of explosion" before the scent of smoke filled the air and the fire alarms went off.
A Level 2 Hazmat response was activated, and another nearby hotel was evacuated, Chicago Fire Media told ABC7 Chicago . A news chopper flying above the scene captured harrowing images of flames licking the walls of the building, spilling through windows and stretching up to 10 feet in the air, seeming to originate from a manhole cover on the sidewalk.
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Local media dubbed the blaze the West Loop Fire as firefighters told reporters that it seemed to have been caused by an electrical vault. What exactly happened to cause the fire wasn't immediately clear, but ComEd, the local electrical company that provides power to the hotel, shut down power to the area.
As many as 39 customers are without power amid the outage as firefighters work to tackle the blaze. The company told ABC7 Chicago it was working to restore power to the area.
No injuries were reported from the fire, the Chicago Fire Department told the outlet. It wasn't immediately clear how much damage there was to the building, which is described as over 100 years old on Soho House Chicago's website .
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"Situated in the 1908 Allis Building, a former belt factory in the Fulton Market District, Soho House Chicago spans five floors. With a rooftop overlooking West Loop, it has industrial-inspired interiors and 40 bedrooms," the website reads.
The building is 108,000 square feet, the website continues, and is described as one of the company's "largest Houses." It was opened in 2014, and it features an 80-foot rooftop pool, a screening room, a gym and a spa as well as daily music and events. There's even an art gallery featuring works by Theaster Gates, Damien Hirst and Kerry James Marshall.
The club is expensive — membership at the cheapest is $650, but there are discounts for those under 27 years of age. (The price is then $325.) Witness accounts revealed that the flames shot up the sidewalk, and being 10 feet tall, they likely reached at least the second story of the building.
Robert Watkins, a guest at the hotel, described the scene in vivid detail as he discussed fleeing the building after discovering that there was a fire. "There was a loud kind of explosion, and it smelled like burned coffee — actually, not so much just roasting coffee — and then the fire alarm went off," he said.
"They went door-to-door. The hotel did a great job of getting everybody out," he continued. "We came out. You could see in the front of the building a huge fire coming out of the manhole on the street, 10-foot high flames, a bunch of smoke, a lot of crackling and popping — like small little explosives."
He said the guests were all brought to the other side of the street, and then the fire company showed up and began battling the blaze as the guests watched.
Further details about the incident weren't immediately available, according to ABC7 Chicago, but no one was injured, the Chicago Fire Department told the outlet. It was reported that the blaze was mostly under control by 6 a.m.
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