75 OK after smoke seeps inside Casey’s Foods
BY BILL BIRD wbird@stmedianetwork.com February 18, 2013 3:36PM
An estimated 75 people escaped injury Monday afternoon, after an electrical transformer fault created smoke inside a popular supermarket in central Naperville.One and possibly two transformers apparently blew out about 2:30 p.m., affecting business at Caseys Foods. The store is in the Naperville Plaza shopping center at Gartner Road and Washington Street in the West Highlands neighborhood. | Daina Saleh~Submitted
Maps
Updated: March 21, 2013 6:20AM
An estimated 75 people escaped injury Monday afternoon, after an electrical transformer fault created smoke inside a popular supermarket in central Naperville.
One and possibly two transformers apparently blew out about 2:30 p.m., affecting business at Casey’s Foods. The store is in the Naperville Plaza shopping center at Gartner Road and Washington Street in the West Highlands neighborhood.
“All it was, was smoke,” store Manager Kevin Killelea said in a telephone interview. The estimated 35 customers and 40 employees inside the market at the time all got outside safely, and “nobody was hurt,” he said.
Killelea said the transformer fault affected “some of our compressors and the like. Only half of our lights went out.”
Firefighters arrived at the scene and checked the store’s back room and rooftop, Killelea said. Those who climbed to the roof discovered “one of our heating-cooling units (had) overheated,” sending smoke into the ducts, he said.
Killelea said the smoke set off the market’s fire alarms, bringing firefighters to the area and alerting customers and employees to the situation. All those inside got out quickly, he said.
The building was then ventilated by firefighters, which meant none of the store’s merchandise was affected, Killelea said. Casey’s was closed from about 2:30 until 4:30 p.m. and reopened for business late Monday afternoon, he said.
Naperville Fire Department Capt. Brian Ross confirmed Monday night a blown transformer caused the emergency, and that there were no injuries.
