Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has retained the company of former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director James Lee Witt to conduct an independent investigation of a high-rise office building fire that killed six people in Chicago this month.

Since the Oct. 17 blaze in the Cook County Administration Building, questions have been raised about the building's lack of sprinklers and the locked doors that prevented employees from escaping a smoky stairwell. The fire department and Chicago Fire Commissioner James Joyce have also come under criticism because it took firefighters 90 minutes to find the victims.

According to an Oct. 24 report by the Associated Press, Blagojevich said he asked Witt to investigate the fire because an investigative team being selected by the county board president lacked expertise. Witt will be paid $1 million and will have six months to investigate the fire, according to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times.

"We will work closely with the state, the county and the city of Chicago -- including community leaders, all interested parties and stakeholders -- to ensure that we consider all the factors that contributed to this tragic event," Witt said. "I look forward to presenting our findings and recommendations to the governor and the citizens of Illinois as soon as possible."

Witt served as FEMA director from 1993-2001 and was the first director to be elevated as a member of a president's cabinet. He is president of James Lee Witt Associates , a public safety and emergency management consulting firm headquartered in Washington, D.C, and is CEO of the International Code Council, which develops codes used in the construction of residential and commercial buildings, homes and schools.

Read an interview with Witt in the October issue of FIRE CHIEF.