Restaurant exhaust fire claims another fireman's life.

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A Chicago firefighter died Monday morning after falling 35 feet while battling a fire at a popular downtown restaurant.

Christopher Wheatley, 31, was climbing a ladder to the roof of Avec, 615 W. Randolph, when he fell, Fire Cmdr. Robert Hoff told the Chicago Tribune.

The incident happened about 12:30 a.m., and Wheatley was rushed to Stroger Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Wheatley was carrying about 75-pounds of equipment, including an ax, oxygen tank and hose, up the ladder, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The grease-chute fire he was attempting to extinguish at Avec was put out a short time later.

"We tried to save his life, but it was too late," Hoff told NBC Chicago. "He was one of our best," Hoff said, close to tears. "He was very well liked. He was a hard worker and he always had a smile on his face."

Wheatley worked for the CFD for ten years--first as a paramedic and as a firefighter since 2008. He is survived by his father, mother, sister and fiancé.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/09/christopher-wheatley-chic_n_675371.html
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More regulations to come from this. Regulation like Nevada has is the future of this industry. It will be a two edged sword. accountability is great, our stupid ass lawmakers will find a way to profit from it and over bureaucratize it. :banghead:
 
I would be willing to bet that it was a neglected system that did not have a reg. scheduled cleaning!
 
That is a shame that a fire fighter died while trying to put out a fire.

It will be interesting to see what they say what was the cause and what the investigation tells later on.

Keep us posted on what they find out.
 
It was Avec restaurant at 615 West Randolph Street, Chicago, IL‎ If you go to google maps and look at the pics you can see the hood system coming out of the building and up the side on the alley. high but looks accessable.
 
Bummer. This is why I take what we do VERY seriously. I got in a big argument with the police recently, because they were shutting me down for a noise complaint. I wasn't informed by the owner that there was a noise ordinance in that town, but the police didn't seem to know at first either, and I told them if a firefighter dies tomorrow, because you made me stop due to people crying about the noise, are you going to tell their kids it was your fault? Once they told me the town had a noise bylaw I shut right down no arguments, but before they hit me with the noise ordinance bylaw number I wasn't planning on stopping.
 
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