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Incredible Photos Show Water Freezing As Firefighters Fight Chicago’s Largest Fire in 7 Years

Jan. 23, 2013 5:21pm Liz Klimas

A fire that started Tuesday evening at a vacant Chicago warehouse is now covered in ice after firefighter’s efforts to snuff the blaze.

WGN TV reported the fire was the largest in the city in seven years, at least in terms of response. It took 170 firefighters — one-third the Chicago Fire Department’s firefighters on duty at the time — to put it out. Many were still on the scene in freezing temperatures Wednesday morning.

“I was looking out my window and I noticed the fire, and it was pretty hot, intense,” Bridgeport resident Mike Lopez said to WGN TV. “Then this morning, my son wanted to come and look at it, and it looks like an ice castle.”

Watch WGN TV’s raw footage:

WGN TV reported that the cause of the fire is under investigation.

Here are photos showing both the blaze and the icy morning after:

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Comments (40)

term limits for congress
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 9:58am
Oh, I forgot… there is a large concentration of those eco-friendly Chevy Volts in the Communist Republic of Chicago.

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term limits for congress
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 9:54am
Winter? Cold? Those must be pictures from prehistoric times.

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mlimberg
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 9:49am
It’s Chicago, a once great American city… let it burn…..

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RichEG
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 6:55am
Which is worse …. the building burning or the possibility of the building collapsing from the weight of the ice?

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Slowman101
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 3:10am
Put 20 Democrats and 10 liberals around the building. With all the hot air they give off the building will be thawed in no time at all!

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rikyt74
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 12:37am
Think of all the bed bugs that were killed! Where is PEDA when you need them?

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- Jelly_Belly
  Posted on January 24, 2013 at 9:39am
  I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of PEDA. Is that the “People for the Eating of Diseased Animals”?
  
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independentvoteril
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 10:51pm
HEY these are better pictures than we got here in CHICAGO newspapers.. lol.. firstly this firs was NOT in the Bridgeport area it was in the McKinley PARK area.. I was raised about 1/2 block from where the fire occurred .. in a house that has been in my family for over 65 years.. this was part of the STOCK YARDS when CHICAGO was a GREAT city..it was the manufacturing center of the city.. the GRAND old brick buildings were and still are strong and well built unlike the stuff they build now.. there are MANY old buildings like this one in about a mile square area, some still hold small manufacturing business.. it’s a shame to see this happen .. no doubt the city will tear it down and put up public housing for the illegals now..

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SilentReader
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 10:04pm
Wow! Incredible! It makes me shiver just to look at these pictures.

It’s too bad that Al global warming Gore wasn’t around. Maybe you could have sprayed him with some of that water!

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Noah_fing-whey
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 9:47pm
Water, frigid temps, ice….who knew?

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- battles
  Posted on January 24, 2013 at 8:04am
  Now if they had shown an ice cycle hanging from a fireman’s nose, that would have been interesting.
  
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Eternal
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 8:58pm
Chicago…who cares.

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SheepDogconfrontthewolf
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 8:56pm
that’s why we keep the hoses cracked so the pipes don’t freeze but, the bad thing is all that ice insulates the building and the fire is harder to put out.

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SuttonShimai
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 7:59pm
We had a downtown fire in our town in January about 5 years ago. Same thing, the water froze on the buildings and the trees. The temperature was -11º. One firefighter who was looking up as he sprayed water on the fire got the back of his helmet frozen to the back of his coat and he couldn’t put his head down until he went into a warm building and thawed out!

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- db321
  Posted on January 23, 2013 at 9:06pm
  Good Story, thanks for Sharing!
  
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theonlynana
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 7:47pm
Beautiful!

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ewoodard
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 7:11pm
I’ll bet the fire started was started by misunderstood homeless drug addicts seeking heat after being oppressed by racists, homophobes and sexists who just don’t care and carry guns.

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- Dustoff
  Posted on January 23, 2013 at 7:42pm
  Frankly as a fire fighter myself. Don’t risk they guys lives. Just pore water on it and if it burns to the ground. So be it.
  
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shanew
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 7:06pm
kind of reminds me of 98/99 when I spent boot camp and A school in Great Lakes just north of Chicago. A few days before new years it got down to -28f and I got to walk out on Lake Michigan. that was cold. you could feel your nose hair freeze when you breath in. that’s cold for a south Texas boy where todays hi is 74f and tomorrow is 77f.

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Southernsoul
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 7:06pm
If its so cold why doesn’t the fire freeze?

Just joking. But it will give the liberals on here something to think about.

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- Veteran Patriot
  Posted on January 23, 2013 at 7:51pm
  They were trying to make canned heat. You know, start a fire where it is cold enough to freeze the flames. Chop up the frozen flames and can them. I guess it wasn’t cold enough to freeze the flames. For those in Rio Linda this is a joke.
  
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brigott
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 6:40pm
I grew up in Wisconsin where the winters were brutal and the summers were three months of bad sledding.

I support global warming!

Why not? Let’s get back to tropical Antarctica, like evolutionists say it was before man came along!

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right-wing-waco
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 6:33pm
It was so cold, I saw a democrat with his hands in his OWN pockets.

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- Heather Cocolin
  Posted on January 23, 2013 at 7:39pm
  Best comment of the day!!!!!!!
  
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- right-wing-waco
  Posted on January 23, 2013 at 7:53pm
  HEATHER,
  Thank you very much.
  
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- TRAIN-WRECK
  Posted on January 24, 2013 at 12:19am
  Love it !
  
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- everydaywoman
  Posted on January 24, 2013 at 1:48am
  I literally “LOLed” at that one!:-)
  
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Joe_The_Patriot
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 6:22pm
“Chigaco where the winters are as cold as Democraps black heart”…..

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SpankDaMonkey
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 5:48pm
.
Incredible Photos Show Water Freezing…..Really?…….

I would have never known water froze when it’s cold outside………….

Next Incredible Photos Show Water Boiling this summer…………..

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bonesiii
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 5:48pm
Ice is so awesome.

Although enough of it might bring the building down. But yeah.

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nzkiwi
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 5:45pm
That’s the most astonishing thing I’ve seen in a long time.

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- The-Monk
  Posted on January 23, 2013 at 6:02pm
  Hi NZkiwi,
  
  Reminds me of ice climbing up frozen waterfalls in the Shenandoah Mountains.
  
  Ice is nice; both beautiful and deadly…..
  
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Virginia Rebel
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 5:34pm
Way cool!

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moreteaplease
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 5:33pm
Gives me chills just looking at it. Kinda like looking at Hillary.

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- summersmom
  Posted on January 23, 2013 at 7:41pm
  I needed that!
  
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Shasta
Posted on January 23, 2013 at 5:27pm
More global warming, just as Obungler said. Oh wait…

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- VanceUppercut
  Posted on January 23, 2013 at 5:57pm
  @Shasta
  
  Another moron who doesn’t know the difference between the weather and the climate. Sadly for you, and happily for me, your children (assuming you have them or will have them some day) will not be spared the same fate as my children. But hey, at least you can tell them (as the last glaciers finally melt away) how you “stuck it to those liberals”.
  
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- Joe_The_Patriot
  Posted on January 23, 2013 at 6:19pm
  @VANCEPUPPET
  
  The Ice caps are doing just fine.. All of the climate models from 10 and 20 years ago were WRONG… Actually they were WAY OFF !!!!!! And the seas HAVEN’T Risen…. Got It ????
  
  Report this comment

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