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While our reports of on-set mishaps are generally limited to the greater Los Angeles area, we are happy to field such dispatches from our far-flung operatives whenever the export of Hollywood's movie magic disrupts their workdays. A pair of Chicago-based tipsters have let us know about a fire that broke out on the Windy City location shoot of upcoming Batman sequel The Dark Knight:

· They are filming the new Batman movie here in Chicago at the old Post Office, converted to the Gotham National Bank. Well the building just caught fire. smoke is pouring out of the building from the roof and those are not Gotham fire trucks.

· As you probably know, the next Batman movie, Dark Knight, is getting ready to film here in Chicago, under the alias Rory's First Kiss. I work in on the 10th floor of a building about a block away from one of the locations, the old Post Office building on Van Buren and Canal in downtown. Right now, smoke is billowing out of the roof of the building and there's about 50 fire trucks parked all around — the sirens are constant. It looks like a dense white fog but smells like a billion cap guns went off at once.

They just announced that filming would be taking place nearby in the weekly office newsletter, probably because our building is so close to the location and the filming might disrupt things here.

[An update from the same tipster] Hello again, just got this from the office manager: "As some of you have noticed, the old post office is on fire. The building has advised that they have turned off the air intake but we will still experience some odor."

So not only is Dark Knight burning down all of Chicago, we all get to suffocate as well.

Thanks, Hollywood! I'm going to stop feeling bad about downloading Spiderman 3.

Rumors that the Batman shoot is to blame for the fire may have been premature, as CBS 2 Chicago reports:

A source tells CBS 2 the new Batman movie "The Dark Knight" is being filmed near the scene, and a fan on the roof may have contributed to the fire by igniting some garbage after shorting out. But the Fire Department said the fire was unrelated to the filming of the movie.

We hope that this initial exoneration of The Dark Knight production will serve to calm the obviously simmering tensions between locals and the Hollywood interlopers (perhaps unjustly) accused of befouling their city.

[Image: CBS2Chicago.com video]