Downers Grove fire survivors fearful of future
Diana Grandel was relaxing at home with her boyfriend Sunday night when she heard a crackling noise coming from her apartment complex's hallway.
Not long thereafter, a strange scent crept into her ground-floor apartment. When she opened her door to take a peek, she was met by a dark black wall of smoke and flames, which rushed into her apartment and eventually destroyed nearly everything she owned.
On Wednesday, Grandel said her life has been thrown into complete disarray.
"I am absolutely horrified at being homeless," she said, as she stood outside her now-gutted apartment. "Losing everything, I cannot even explain it. I am so fearful of the unknown; what's going to happen."
Grandel lived on the west end of a building in the Downers Belmont Apartment complex in Downers Grove that was destroyed by an overnight fire early Monday morning. The blaze displaced 33 people from the two-story building, most of whom were forced to leave their belongings behind.
As she spoke, Grandel fought back tears and wore the same clothes she wore Sunday.
"We lost everything: IDs, phones, my daughter's baby pictures, baby teeth," she said. "You can't stop crying and can't get over it. I can't believe this happened. You want to think that maybe it's OK."
Instead, she must find a place to live. After the fire, her landlord offered several residents temporary housing in a building just south of the burned out structure.
Isael Macedo took advantage of that offer. He arrived from working a night shift at Omega Restaurant and Pancake House to see his second-floor unit was completely gone.
"I lost everything," he said. "I don't know what to do."
Macedo said his unit had a smoke detector but he was not sure if it worked.
Downers Grove Fire Department spokeswoman Marsha Giesler said the building was old enough that it was not required to have common-area smoke detectors or sprinklers, as current codes require.
Additionally, the smoke detectors in each unit were independent of each other. Fire codes now require any alarms in a multi-tenant building to be interconnected.
"The fire service has learned over time that this is the best way to keep people safe," Giesler said.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation but Giesler said lightning has been ruled out. She said the fire started in the attic.
As it spread, tenants such as Grandel, who had six years of memories and documents in the apartment, watched as their belongings disappeared in the blaze.
"We thought they contained it," she said. "We thought they had it. We didn't realize it was going to demolish everything we owned."
<p class="factboxheadblack">How to help</p>
<p class="News">• St. Vincent De Paul Society collecting furniture and home goods. For information or to arrange a pickup, call (630) 231-4658.</p>
<p class="News">• Saret Charitable Fund taking goods and household items at two Glen Ellyn locations: 866 Roosevelt Road and 449 N. Main St. Please note contents in boxes. For details, call (630) 790-4600 or (630) 842-8876.</p>
<p class="News">• Belmont Bible Church, 5430 Belmont Road, in Downers Grove is accepting donations. Call (630) 963-2230 for details.</p>
<p class="News">Fire victims should call St. Joseph and St. Mary Catholic churches in Downers Grove at (630) 964-0216 and (630) 969-1063, respectively, to be put in touch with the appropriate St. Vincent De Paul site.</p>