Fire destroys house near Bloomingdale

No one was injured in a fire Thursday night that destroyed a large house in an unincorporated area near Bloomingdale, authorities said.

Bloomingdale Fire Protection District Chief Mike McNamara said neighbors reported the blaze around 8:30 p.m. at the rear of the large home on the 100 block of Merganser Lane near the Mallard Lake Forest Preserve.

Firefighters arrived to find “heavy, heavy fire at the back of the home,” he said.

Crews were hampered by a lack of fire hydrants, he said, and had to truck water into the area.

McNamara said investigators still are probing the cause of the blaze, but it appears it may have started in a grill near the back of the house. The owners were not home when the fire started, he said, but indicated they had been cooking outside earlier in the evening.

McNamara said roughly 55 firefighters were at the scene, including crews from surrounding communities, to battle the blaze and help set up a relay system to get water on the fire. The last firefighters didn’t leave until about 4:30 a.m.