The cause of a fire that leveled a Riverside Lawn home Saturday morning is being called undetermined at this point, but that could change, pending an investigation by Cook County Sheriff’s Police and the Illinois Fire Marshal.
The Lyons Fire Department responded to the blaze at 3803 Gladstone Ave. in unincorporated Riverside Township at 2:37 a.m. By the time they arrived, according to Fire Chief Gordon Nord, the entire 1.5-story frame bungalow was engulfed in flames.
It took firefighters about a half hour to get the fire under control, Nord said, although fire personnel were on site for hours, extinguishing hot spots. Two trees, one in front and one in back of the house also caught fire and had to be extinguished. But the fire was contained to the one property in the heavily wooded residential area, which is surrounded by a forest preserve.
The Lyons Fire Department is responsible for responding to fire and paramedic emergencies in Riverside Lawn per the department’s contract with the local fire protection district.
No one was injured in the blaze. The house, which has been unoccupied during much of the past couple of years, according to neighbors, collapsed on itself. What remains is a charred tangle of lumber and household items.
Don Taylor, who lives next door to the property said he was awakened about 2:30 a.m. by an unknown man from Riverside who appeared at his front door.
“He said he saw the flames shooting up [from across the river] and decided to come over,” said Taylor, who has lived at his home for more than 40 years.
“It lit up the whole neighborhood,” said Taylor, whose front porch was about 40 yards from the house. “Just standing here, it felt like you were two feet away from a bonfire.”
Firefighting efforts were hampered initially by the fact that the nearest fire hydrant to the property was a Lyons municipal hydrant about 900 feet away on 39th Street. Lyons police, meanwhile, are looking for the driver of a white van, which barreled through barricades and over two hoses.
The van’s tires tore the outer jacket of a front suction hose, which was delivering water from the hydrant to the pumper. The inner jack was not ripped open, said Nord, and water flow to the fire wasn’t interrupted.
“I’m just happy our pump operator didn’t get run over,” said Nord.
At least one neighbor said he’s not surprised that the building burned to the ground. The man, who declined to give his name, said the house went up for sale in 2010 and “has been vacant for years.”
The owner of the home is dead and the estate put it on the market about seven months ago. The neighbor said that youths and scavengers have entered the home on several occasions in the past year, including within the last month.
“I’d mow the lawn sometimes and find the front door open,” said the neighbor. “There was no back door, and you could see people would hang stuff over the windows.”
It was easy for people to enter the property without being seen. The home was virtually shielded from view on three sides by large bushes and the rear of the property looked out onto the forest.
“They don’t drive up to the front,” said the neighbor. “The come the back way, through the woods.”
Cook County Sheriff’s Police and the Illinois Fire Marshal are conducting an investigation, though efforts have been slowed by the condition of what’s left of the house.
Sheriff spokesman Steve Patterson said that investigators believe the fire originated in the living room of the home, but they are not sure what caused it. Police also brought in two cadaver dogs to search the rubble, but they found nothing. Patterson conceded the fire could have been started by squatters, but there’s no direct evidence of that at this time.
“We attempted to make entry to conduct an investigation … but were a little bit hampered by the conditions inside,” said Patterson. “It’s just too dangerous to conduct an investigation. That would involve removing all of the rubble and housing materials that have collapsed into the basement. We have to have the owner evacuate it all before we can carry out a full investigation with the state fire marshal.”
According to Patterson, the house had active electrical service at the time of the fire. Nord said gas service had been cut off for some time prior to the blaze.
The ownership of the home is complicated. Because its most recent occupant is dead, the estate is attempting to sell it. According to the listing agent, William Schmakel of Century 21 Accent-Homefinders, there was a prospective buyer and there was contract on the property. The closing was scheduled for this week.
The closing was originally to have been last week, and the prospective buyer purchased homeowner’s insurance for the property the day before the fire, Schmakel said. He’s unsure what the prospective buyer’s plans are at this point.