CHICAGO, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Storage room lighting may have sparked a Chicago blaze that killed six government employees, it was reported Sunday.
A faulty fluorescent lighting fixture in a 6-by-18-foot storage room on the 12th floor of the Cook County Administration Building was being looked at by federal officials Sunday as the likely cause of the fire, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
The six killed and 10 injured were trapped in and around the 21st-floor stairwell shortly after 5 p.m. Friday, officials said. Three people remained hospitalized in critical condition Sunday.
Cook County Public Guardian Patrick Murphy, who had three employees die in the stairwell, is demanding an investigation into why firefighters sent people back up into the stairwell where doors were found to be locked.
Investigators are also looking into why there were no sprinklers in the building, which was purchased by the county in 1996.
