At least five cars were damaged in an explosion and fire on Monday afternoon in the parking garage at Fenwick High School in west suburban Oak Park.
Fire officials said they got the first call about the fire shortly after 1:30 p.m., and arrived within about three minutes.
Students said they heard a loud boom while they were in class.
Oak Park Fire Chief Joseph Terry said it took about 15 minutes to put the fire out.
Village officials confirmed that Fenwick High School, at 505 Washington Blvd., was briefly evacuated because of the fire. Everyone was eventually allowed back in, but students without an 11th period class were relocated to the cafeteria until dismissal.
A spokesperson said the fire involved multiple cars on the third floor of the garage. Three of them were left unrecognizable. It was unclear what started the fire, but a Tesla was involved.
Videos recorded by witnesses show dark smoke coming from the third-floor windows. A Fenwick student also shared pictures from inside the third floor of the garage.
Fenwick student Sean Soriano said his car was on the third floor. His car was not damaged, but he said he had a little bit of smoke inside his car.
"I was like, did a car accident happen in there? It looks like totally like someone planted a bomb inside the car, and I was like, 'Wow,' because there's just three cars just fully burned," he said.
Other students said they were in between classes when the fire alarms went off.
"Everybody was kind of confused because we usually don't have fire drills during passing periods. So we immediately started evacuating the school and we were walking and we just saw like a huge cloud of smoke coming from that area," said Elizabeth Walsh.
"This has never happened before and I was actually like confused. I thought it was a fire drill instead of an actual fire. I was basically kind of scared and nervous," said Aminah Blakney.
"I had to move quickly, and it was just a really scary experience, just having all the kids behind you and you having to rush out the door," said Taylor Younger.
No injuries were reported. Officials said the fire was accidental.
Classes will resume for students on Tuesday. At last check, school officials said the upper levels of the garage remain closed, but it's not clear what it will look like for people who use the top floors of this garage.
Oak Park police were investigating the cause of the fire.
