Tremendous Fire In Rockdale At Longhorn Trucking: Photos

ROCKDALE, IL — More than 50 firefighters from about 10 area agencies are now on the scene of Friday afternoon's huge industrial building fire in Rockdale.

Thick black clouds of smoke filled the air for several miles across Joliet's skyline, and a number of fire engines that were helping battle a barn fire in rural Troy Township along Baltz Road near Route 52 — including the Rockdale Fire Protection District's water tanker truck —broke away from that blaze to help extinguish the massive fire in Rockdale.

Rockdale Police Chief Robert Dykstra told Joliet Patch that the Rockdale industrial fire happened at 4:15 p.m. He said that the Longhorn Trucking building is at 132 Harris Drive and the company had about 100 trucks outside. He said the industrial building became fully engulfed and one man who was inside the facility made it out safely. There are no known injuries, the police chief said.

Longhorn Trucking moved to Rockdale about a year ago, the chief estimated. For years, the property belonged to the Polar Service Center.

The property where the fire happened was listed as being available for lease as a trucking terminal last year on the commercial website LoopNet. The site on Harris Drive was marketed as a 30,000 square foot maintenance facility on four acres with parking or outside storage. The structure was built in 1990.