Fire At Police HQ Shuts Phone, Internet

A small fire that broke out in a Chicago Police Headquarters phone room Saturday morning may be responsible for the phone and computer outages the department continues to deal with Saturday afternoon.

About 11:50 a.m., crews responded to a "small fire" in one of the telephone rooms at police headquarters, 3510 S. Michigan Ave., Fire Media Affairs Dir. Larry Langford said.

Three trucks reportedly responded to the scene, according to a police source.

The fire, which was likely electrical in nature, was put out quickly, Langford said. The building was not fully evacuated.

The small fire did, however, cause "some kind of outage," Langford said.

Police News Affairs Officer JoAnn Taylor said officers were reaching out to the 911 dispatch center through cell phones while their office phones and computer systems were down.

The department's phone lines, computer system and Web sites remained affected by the outage at 3:15 p.m.