Strong Winds and Plenty to Burn Made This Fire a Difficult One
to Contain and Arrest.
© Suburban Journals of  Chicago Inc. photo

report by Ed Vincent

Update: Dec 17th

One Oak Park firefighter was injured at the fire, from the equipment (not the fire) and has been released from the hospital (on the same day of injury-Dec 13th).  The displaced persons who
had resided at the fire location are reported to be staying locally with friends and relatives.  The people in the residence to the
north of the fire have all returned to their homes and are very
pleased that the firefighters stopped the damage to their homes.

The fire is believed to have been started somewhere in the attic
when no one was home.  Arson is not suspected and the final
determination may come from the insurance company-since there is no indication of criminal activity.
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A woman in a wheelchair was surprised by fire personnel helping her from her bathroom and out of the house when the call came of the fire.  The residents on the second floor, where the fire may have started were not home at the time.  No exact
location or cause has yet been determined, but foul play is not
part of the picture at this time.

Once firefighters rescued all persons from the structure the
next major move was to contain and quell the destruction of
the fire.  At 2:20 p.m. the call came out for a "Box Alarm",
which meant more departments were put on call and the
severity of the scene had been brought up a notch.  Forest Park, Oak Park, Cicero, Berwyn, and River Forest all had crews at
the fire.

The building cleared, firefighters were still in the building when things began to look very precarious for the personnel inside
the structure.  Forest Park Fire Chief Steve Glinke went into
the building and ordered all firefighters out of the house at
2:30 p.m.  He repeated his calls for evacuation until all his
crew and any others were safe outside.  It was not long before
part of the roof collapsed and fell between the two buildings.
The winds were from the south and headed north, and the
fire wanted to reach the residence to the north, and would have
if the Cicero large fire truck with its platform didn't assist
Oak Park's efforts, the two in tandem helped end the event.

Oak Park's Fire Chief Bell drove down to the fire from
his home to see his men and women doing a great job of keeping the neighborhood from becoming kindling for a
larger destruction.