Residents escape unharmed before fire guts apartments

A fire early Thursday destroyed a five-flat Carpentersville apartment building on the village's east side, leaving at least six people homeless.

Crews from Carpentersville and seven neighboring fire departments fought the 6 a.m. blaze at 104 Williams St., fire officials said.

A neighbor saw flames coming from the building and rushed to alert residents of a ground floor apartment, Carpentersville Fire Capt. Rick Paul said.

A family of five and another tenant were evacuated from the building. Two other families were not home at the time, while the fifth unit was unoccupied.

No injuries were reported.

"I hate to say it, but you normally have someone get injured when you have that much fire," Paul said of the blaze that took 35 firefighters almost two hours to extinguish. "This was a significant fire that totaled the building."

Paul said the estimated cost of damage is not known. Investigators also are trying to determine the cause of the fire, and Paul said it is not considered suspicious.

A preliminary investigation suggests the fire started in a void space off the second-floor stairwell and quickly spread to the open attic of the 50-year-old building, Paul said.

A smoke alarm was found outside the building, but Paul said it was impossible to determine if it was working at the time of the fire.