Lightning sparks Mundelein, Aurora, Lisle house fires

A heavy band of storms that blew through the area caused downed power lines and at least two fires, officials said.

A family of three was displaced this morning after lightning struck their Aurora home.

Battalion Chief Ed Oros said lightning struck the home at 521 N. May at 10 a.m. as a string of thunderstorms ripped through the area. The strike sent flames through the first and second floors of the house's southwest front corner.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze in about 15 minutes.

Oros said no one was home at the time of the strike but the family will be staying with the Red Cross for an undetermined amount of time.

"I'd say they've got about $80,000 in structural damage and another $30,000 in loss or damage of the home's contents," Oros said. "So we've determined the house to be uninhabitable."

Oros said such strikes are completely random.

"There's absolutely nothing you can do to prevent them," he said. "That's why they tell you to stay inside."

DuPage Co.

A Lisle family has a passer-by to thank for alerting them to a fire that had engulfed the rear of their home Monday morning.

Lisle-Woodridge Fire District Battalion Chief David Kruzeil said firefighters were alerted at 10 a.m. to the fire at 4519 Dumoulin Ave. by someone who saw heavy smoke coming from the rear roof of the house. That person also informed the homeowners of the fire.

The home's two occupants escaped unharmed and firefighters had the blaze out in less than an hour.

Kruzeil said the fire highlights the importance of functioning smoke detectors.

"How many times do you hear a bang or a loud noise and say 'Honey did you hear that?' and go back to what you were doing because everything seemed fine?" Kruzeil said. "Unfortunately that's likely what happened here and it happens far too often."

Kruzeil said firefighters believe lightning struck either the house or power lines attached to it, igniting the blaze. He described the damage as "moderate to heavy" and said the family would be unable to stay in the building.

"Aside from having smoke detectors to tell you to get out, there's not much you can do about lightning strikes," he said. "There's so many variables involved that you just can't predict them."

Lake Co.

Mundelein fire officials blamed a lightning strike for an attic fire in the 200 block of E. Hawthorne Parkway early Monday morning.

At the same time, a giant storm cloud plunged the area into darkness in the early morning hours, while lightning cracked across the sky.

Battalion Chief Kevin McKinley said neighbors of the home at 215 Hawthorne saw smoke rising from the roof at about 7 a.m. and called the fire department.

He said, upon arrival, smoke was seen pouring out of the chimney. Firefighters entered the house and went through the roof into the attic, and knocked the fire down. He said no one was in the house when the fire started, and no one was injured in the blaze.

"We are still investigating the fire, but we believe it was lightning from the heavy storm this morning," he said.

He said the home was habitable after the fire was doused in the attic, but the home suffered about $50,000 in damages.

Kane Co.

Lightning also struck a home in the 700 block of Ekman Drive in Batavia.

Batavia Fire Department Battalion Chief Randy Banker said aside from startling a couple in the home, the strike caused no injuries and only minor damage to the home.

The lightning hit the chimney of the home at 756 Ekman Drive, damaging the chimney and sending a brick toward a neighboring home.

Banker said no fires were reported as a result of the strike, which was called in at 9:47 a.m.

Outages and delays

Amy Seely, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service, said the storm looked worse than it really was, however.

She said only about a half-inch of rain fell because of Monday's storms, and that only communities along the Wisconsin/Illinois border picked up any sort of damage.

"The winds were only about 40 miles an hour," she said. "There was some great lightning, but that was about it."

O'Hare and Midway Airports, did experience delays because of the storms. O'Hare had delays of about 60 or 90 minutes in the morning, officials said, with about 100 flights canceled because of the storm. Midway also had about 90 minute delays, but didn't report any canceled flights.

ComEd officials said there were not any significant outages Monday, though areas in Lincolnshire, Highland Park and Lake Forest reported scattered power outages for brief moments.

Other scattered areas reported tree limbs falling and other wind damage, but no injuries were reported because of the storms.

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