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Fire displaces Des Plaines family

A dryer might have sparked a fire in the basement of a Des Plaines home early Thursday evening, which spread to the first floor and left the home uninhabitable, fire officials said.

Firefighters battled the blaze on the 900 block of Walter Avenue in already sweltering heat for about 90 minutes until it was finally brought under control, Des Plaines Fire Capt. Scott Peirson said.

“The heat obviously slowed us down. It was 100-some degrees when we were working,” Peirson said.

A homeowner spotted the flames in his basement at about 5:40 p.m. and evacuated the home with his family before firefighters arrived, officials said.

“Due to the way it spread up into the walls of the house, we had to chase it a bit,” he said. “There was a lot of overhaul.”

Fire investigators estimated the damages to the home at $50,000.

The official cause of the fire remained under investigation Thursday night, but Peirson suspected it was caused by a dryer in the basement.

No one was injured in the fire, but the family will be displaced for an extended period of time, officials said.

Firefighters from the Mount Prospect and Niles fire departments assisted at the scene.