Fire damages Maine Township apartment building, displaces residents, closes Dempster Street during evening rush

Feb. 4--Fire officials were working this week to determine what may have caused a fire inside a Maine Township condominium building Monday that displaced residents and shut down a stretch of Dempster Street, snarling traffic during the evening rush hour.

The fire occurred inside a three-story building at Briar Court Condominiums, west of Dee Road and north of Maine East High School, in unincorporated Maine Township.

North Maine Fire Department District Chief Dave Drdla said firefighters responded to an activated fire alarm inside the 8812 Briar Court building around 4 p.m., Feb. 3, but were unable to find a fire.

"We initially thought it was a bad dryer in the laundry room, but it wasn't," Drdla said. "With all the doors being open, the smell was dissipating, so we thought we had it. We reset the alarm, the alarm was holding and we were getting ready to leave when the residents were still calling us in. They still smelled something."

Eventually, firefighters discovered smoke and flames in the building's attic, he said. Holes were cut in the building's roof to extinguish the fire, Drdla said.

The cause remained unknown Tuesday, but residents had reported seeing work crews doing some kind of repairs in the building prior to the fire alarm sounding, Drdla said.

North Maine Fire Chief Robert McKay said the fire caused largely smoke and water damage to the 8812 Briar Court building, as well as an attached building next at 8810 Briar Court. The two buildings consist of 22 residential units, he said.

None of the residents were able to return to their units Monday, McKay said.

Third-floor resident Sonya Membrenyo said she smelled smoke after she returned home from work and then heard the fire alarms sounding. Within seconds, the building was consumed by heavy smoke, she said.

"It was really bad," she said. "We couldn't even stay here outside."

Second-floor resident Ola Kowalska said she rushed home after learning of the fire from her mother and a firefighter friend who heard the call come in. Kowalska said her mother and a neighbor grabbed the family's important documents and their two dogs and got out of the building.

She acknowledged that she did not have renter's insurance.

"You think it's silly, but then you have a situation like this and you think, 'Why didn't I get that?'" Kowalska said.

With numerous fire departments responding, Dempster Street was closed to traffic between Potter and Dee Roads for nearly three hours. Cars were detoured through the Maine East High School campus, creating gridlock on the school's driveways and along Potter Road.

Dempster Street reopened around 7:30 p.m., according to the Park Ridge Police Department.

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