Grease Fire = Street Theater

A fire in one of Chicago's tallest residential towers made scarcely a blip in the city's newspapers and broadcasts Saturday (despite a station helicopter hovering above), but it drew Saturday evening crowds along a bustling stretch of State Street in River North. Reports said the fire, in the Grand Plaza complex, just across the street from the historic Tree Studios, began in a restaurant garbage chute, and then triggered an ammonia leak that led to evacuation of a Jewel grocery store at the base of the tower. The smoke spewed black, turned quickly to white, and then ebbed and dissipated across the Loop skyline as the spectators below returned to their social engagements. There were no reported injuries.