Only on 2: The investigation and possible cause of fire at a Bartlett storage facility
BARTLETT, Ill. (CBS) -- A fire darkened the skies of Bartlett for the better part of a week.
The fire destroyed a storage company that claimed to keep your most important documents safe. It was a total loss.
CBS 2's Chris Tye had a first glimpse Thursday inside the investigation and a possible cause.
It was a frigid stretch of February when the fire broke out and lasted five days. The fire destroyed items that were kept under lock, key, and a promise of security. What was once 250,000 square feet of the vital and invaluable is now rubble.
So how did this happen?
For the first time, and Only on 2, there are some answers.
The fire was so hot it appeared on weather radar sweeps of Bartlett. Firehoses pumping 2,000 gallons per minute were no match for a structure lined with boxes of vital documents stacked floor to ceiling inside Access Records Management Services.
The company promotes itself as storing your most important items inside "highly secure", "climate controlled," and "fire-protected facilities."
In a statement to CBS 2, Access Records Management Services said it is working with clients to get answers, but it can't comment on the fire since it's an ongoing investigation. CBS 2 filed a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA) with the Bartlett Fire Department to get some answers.
This investigation report indicates that the morning of Feb. 3, "there was a contractor there to fix a heater."
"An eyewitness saw a spark come from the general area of a unit heater. The roof top unit was almost directly over the unit heater, " according to the report.
Eyewitnesses told Bartlett fire that the contractor "switched something on that kind of made a spark, it sounded like it was, kind of a like a good thing, like the heater came back on or something."
"And then in a matter of seconds… flakes just lit up on fire… almost like it was an explosion," the report continues.
Sprinklers did go off over the area where the fire began, but were not of much use, according to the report.
"It actually turned off quickly," the report said.
While the outline of what happened that morning is made clear by the report, the investigation report lists the "Fire Cause: Undetermined."
What's left are charred remains of items people cared so much about they paid for their storage. A source within the fire department said earlier this week, a team of over 100 insurance investigators were combing through this debris.
The fire chief said at this point, he does not believe this fire was suspicious.
