15-year-old boy faces charges in Lake in the Hills brush fire
A 15-year-old Algonquin boy has been charged with seven felony counts of criminal damage to property in connection with a Wednesday afternoon brush fire that roared through a Lake in the Hills neighborhood, police said.
No injuries were reported in the fire that scorched, but did not burn down, six homes in the 600 block of Grace Drive and Lisa Court.
The blaze also destroyed playground equipment, fences, trees and other backyard items.
"We don't have any information to suggest that it was maliciously done," Deputy Police Chief Mary Frake said in explaining the charges. "It was a reckless act in a brush area that was incredibly dry, so the fire spread very quickly and caused a significant amount of damage."
At 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, police received the report of the fire in the 500 and 600 block of Grace Drive and officers on the scene saw the large blaze moving north through a wetland area and approaching houses in the 600 block of Grace Drive.
Police evacuated homes in the area of Willow Street and Grace Drive as a precaution, and shut down the Prairie Path. Officers, after interviewing witnesses, found several juveniles reported to have been leaving the area around the time the fire started.
Frake said police found a group of teenagers five or six blocks away from the fire.
The probe ended with the 15-year-old boy being charged.
He has since been released to his parents, according to a police report.
He faces seven counts of criminal damage between $300 and $10,000 for each incident, Frake said.
"We were very fortunate that nobody was hurt," Frake said. "We had an officer in the vicinity that saw the fire, so he was able to respond very quickly and officers began evacuating homes. There was a quick response all the way around."
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<li><a href="/story/?id=369924 ">Brush fire roars through Lake in the Hills neighborhood <span class="date">[03/31/2010]</span></a></li>
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