Fire guts home at Lilacia Park

Lombard fire officials are looking for the cause of a weekend blaze that gutted a two-story house owned by the park district, part of the Lilacia Park campus.

At 9:30 p.m. Sunday, firefighters received a call of flames at the rear of an unoccupied house at 203 W. Parkside Avenue, which faces the Lombard Metra Station.

"From all indications, the fire started inside a dining room, out a broken window, traveled up the side of the building and broke a second-floor window," Lombard fire spokesman James Plunket said Monday.

The blaze caused $260,000 in estimated damage, said Lombard Park Director Paul Friedrichs.

Built in 1930, the park district has owned the house since 1955, Friedrichs said, and used the building as a rental property for park employees to help keep watch over Lilacia Park to deter vandals.

The last renter, now a former park employee, moved out of the house in the first week of July, Friedrichs said.

"Thankfully, the home was unoccupied at the time of the fire," said park district spokeswoman Kathleen McManis.

Friedrichs said after the last renter left, "We were thinking about replacing the carpet. I guess we're not going to worry about that now. It's all just a big mess."

Instead of new carpeting, Friedrichs said the district likely will spend $13,000 to demolish the house.