CHICAGO (WLS) -- The company that botched the demolition of a Little Village smokestack back in 2020 will pay over $12 million in damages to impacted residents, court documents show.
The class-action federal case against Hilco was brought after the company took down a 380-foot smokestack at the Crawford Power Station at 35th Place and Pulaski Road in April of 2020, sending up a massive plume of dust that settled over the neighborhood.
Many residents said it made it difficult to breathe and caused lasting respiratory problems.
Genaro Contreras lives two blocks from the implosion site and said he was healthy before the implosion, but since then he's been to hospitals several times because he has trouble breathing and sleeping.
At a news conference last year, the Little Village Community Council said the city's Inspector General's report on the incident, which was leaked to the media, finds fault with several departments that were involved in allowing permits to be issued for the demolition.
The site, which now houses a warehouse distribution site for Target, sits in the 22nd Ward. Alderman Mike Rodriguez said he has seen the OIG report and calls the incident environmental racism against his predominantly Latino community.
"The IG report states real clearly that city bureaucracy failed the residents of Little Village, failed my neighbors and failed my community," Rodriguez said.
The settlement allows class members to recover for property damage and personal injuries by submitting a short claim form, the law firm Loevy & Loevy said in a news release Wednesday.
Those who qualify should file claims at https://littlevillagesmokestack.com by March 26.
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Hilco settlement: Company that botched Little Village, Chicago smokestack demo will pay over $12M, court docs say - WLS-TV
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