If you were walking downtown this noon and thought somebody had lit a fire in their fireplace — that may not have been the source of the odor you smelled.
Evanston fire crews were called out shortly after noon to respond to a sizable brush fire along the Metra tracks just north of Church Street.
Firefighters had to use ladders to climb up the embankment to get at the blaze.
Fire Division Chief Paul Polep says brush along about a 150-foot stretch of the tracks burned and that there were no delays to Metra trains as a result of the incident.