Five people sustained minor injuries in a fire that broke out in the iconic John Hancock Center Saturday afternoon.
The fire broke out just a few hours before the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival was to begin on Michigan Avenue. Fire officials said it took only about a half hour to put the flames out and while the homeowner on the 50th floor remained unharmed, her unit was completely gutted by flames.
Mary Minow, who lives in the unit above where the fire began, said she noticed a strange smell and then opened her front door to find smoke filling the hallway.
"I went into the hallway and there were other neighbors who smelled smoke," she said. "The elevator didn't work, so we went five (flights of) stairs, down to 44 and that elevator took us down." Calls for help from the iconic 100-story high rise began around 2:30 p.m. after thick smoke and flames began shooting from the building's east side. More than 100 firefighters and six ambulances arrived at the scene.
There was never a full evacuation of the building, which also has retail stores, offices, an observatory and a restaurant-bar on the 95th floor - where tourist Kim Wichman was.
"It's scary because you always think of 9/11, when the fire and the building collapsed," she said. "You don't know what the structure's like."