Fire ravages Naperville house

A fire ravaged a Naperville home on Friday, causing more than $300,000 in damage and leaving the house uninhabitable, officials said.

Piles of things inside the house and garage contributed to the fire, firefighters said.

Homeowner Donald Reed called 911 about 9:55 a.m. to report a fire in his second-floor bathroom at 2023 Bristol Court, officials said.

No one was injured. Fire crews arriving on the scene at 10 a.m. found heavy fire on the first and second floors. A fire crew was on its way upstairs when the ceiling started to cave in, Assistant Chief Richard Mikel said. Officials immediately evacuated.

They could not get back inside, as it was hard to get around, Mikel said. They fought the rest of the fire from the outside.

The homeowners' garage door was open, revealing a jumble of furniture, boxes, mirrors and books piled on top of one another.

"That's what it was like inside," Mikel said. "There's stuff piled shoulder and waist high. It's years of living accumulations."

The sheer volume of the contents, he said, made it difficult for firefighters to get inside the home. The abundance of household goods -- including clothes, kitchen and dining supplies, and accessories, which partially blocked entryways -- also helped fuel the fire, Mikel said.

Because of it, the blaze "kept getting bigger instead of smaller," he said.

At one point, fire officials stood on a ledge above the front door, throwing items by the handful to the ground.

Firefighters had the blaze under control within an hour of their arrival, but they remained on the scene for several hours after.

Neighbors and friends Friday morning brought the homeowners chairs and food, as they talked with city inspectors and fire officials.

At one point, Donald Reed, who declined to comment, leaned on one knee, burying his face in his hands. His wife, Darlene, rubbed his back.