Fire breaks out at Blommer Chocolate Company

CHICAGO - No injuries have been reported after a fire broke out Tuesday morning at the Blommer Chocolate Co.’s Fulton River District factory.

Firefighters responded 11:12 a.m. for black smoke coming from the roof of the factory at 400 N. Jefferson St., according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Merritt.

The fire was put out within an hour, and there were no injuries, Merritt said. The cause of the fire wasn’t immediately clear.

Margaret Sofio, Blommer’s chief people officer, said everyone was safely evacuated from the plant, and that there are “no issues.”

In 2017, an extra-alarm fire tore through the factory’s roof, prompting the company’s 200 employees to evacuate safely to the streets.

In January, Blommer Chocolate Co. shut down its factory store to make room for an expansion of its manufacturing facility.

The company, founded in 1939, is notable for sending chocolate scents adrift through the downtown area.

Blommer is the largest industrial chocolate manufacturer on the continent and third largest in the world, employing about 900 people across North America and China.

In 2018, the business was sold for $750 million to the Japanese company Fuji Oil Holding Inc.