North Park University dorm catches fire, students must be relocated, Chicago fire department says

Students are displaced after a fire at a North Park University dorm on Chicago's North Side.

Chicago firefighters responded to the private Christian college in the city's North Park neighborhood shortly before noon Thursday. The dorm affected is near Christiana and Foster Avenue.

The Chicago Fire Department said the found flames on the dorm's first floor toward the back of the building, and spreading up a staircase.

Many of the students who live in the building were still inside at the time and had to be evacuated, CFD said. One student said the fire alarms never went off.

"That was the crazy part," said Victoria Lopez, student. "And we have smoke detector alarms that go off for silly things like air fryers, but apparently not for real fires."

No injuries were reported, but the students are not able to return to their dorm and now they have to be relocated.

The fire department said the cause of the fire remains under investigation.