VIDEO: About 150 firefighters worked feverishly to put out a massive fire at a waste management facility in the Brighton Park neighborhood Tuesday.
The wind-blown fire started around 4 p.m. in a prairie near the railway about a block away from Waste Management of Illinois, Inc.'s recycling facility near 48th Place and Christiana Avenue, according to a statement from the company.
Embers were blown into the plant's yard, resulting in the recyclable materials catching fire. In a matter of minutes, it ignited the Southwest Side recycling plant and quickly erupted into a full-blown inferno. "One side was fire and the other side was like, catching on fire, like smoking," witness Ferdinand Miranda said.
As fire trucks raced to the burning Brighton Park plant, employees scrambled out just ahead of the flames. "I heard one guy ask if anyone was still in there," Miranda said.