ROCHELLE –Aldi was forced to evacuate the building and remain closed for multiple hours because of a fire scare on Wednesday afternoon.
Reports of smoke coming from both the men’s and women’s restroom in Aldi forced the fire department to be called and the building to be evacuated. Along with the smoke, there was a strong chemical smell that was permeating throughout the building and carrying out to the parking lot.
After an investigation, it was determined that the cause of the smoke and the smell was the sewer lining work being done in the area by city crews.

“The city is going through and lining sewer lines, they put some kind of a lining in the sewer line then they use steam to harden the material. The problem is if all of the sewer traps don’t have water in them, it allows those fumes to come up into your building and that is what happened in both of the bathrooms at Aldi,” Rochelle fire chief David Sawlsville explained.
To help eleviate the smell, Aldi was forced to remain closed to customers and use fans to pull the air from inside the store to the outside for several hours.
There were no injuries or any damage to the property as a result of the incident.
“We monitored the air and nothing was showing up as being dangerous, flammable or explosive. I talked to the local people and they explained to me that they are not dangerous, just obnoxious,” added Sawlsville.