BFD: Origin of building blaze unknown

The flashing lights above a train of fire trucks speeding down First Street were barley visible through the black smoke billowing out of an abandoned lubricant building once known as Johnson Oil Company.\nA woman called 911 shortly after 6 p.m. when a loud boom sounded off from the building, located at the corner of First and Morton streets. The woman reported rising smoke that was accumulating in the sky and covering tops of large buildings including a Kroger grocery store. \nShortly after the call was dispatched to the Bloomington Fire Department, four fire trucks swarmed the scene and had the smoke under control within an hour.\nFirefighters cut several holes into the roof of the building and brought in high-powered fans to assist in clearing the smoke out of the building. Firefighters cut through the roof in order to clear out smoke in areas of the building that were still smoldering.\nJeff Barlow, Bloomington Fire Chief, said the firefighters took a high heat and low visibility procedure to get the fire under control.\nBarlow said he was unsure where and when the fire began.\nWhat was burning in the building and whether or not it is toxic is also unknown at this point in the investigation, Barlow said. A rehab station was set up for firefighters to undergo regular check-ups to make sure they were not reacting to the plethora of smoke looming around the building.\n"They are holding up OK," Barlow said about the firefighters. "It could be potentially hazardous, but we don't know that yet at this point in the investigation."\nJim Inman, an employee for Comprehensive Financial, joined more than 20 Bloomington residents to watch the smoke billowing around the structure and blanket the area in a thick cloud hours after the fire was first spotted.\n"There has been a heck of a lot of smoke coming out of that place for quite some time," Inman said. "Things got really exciting just a while ago when the electric lines were sparking and popping off."\nRick Schrader, another Bloomington resident, said he wandered over when he caught wind of the wood-burning smell in his home blocks away from the site of the fire.\n"You could see the fire and smell it all the way down Third Street," Schrader said. "But we're not really worried at this point because no one was told to evacuate around the area"