No injuries as fire rips through Downers Grove office building

Firefighters are investigating the cause of an early morning blaze Monday that caused major damage to a two-story brick office building that housed the legislative offices of state Sen. Ron Sandack on the 1100 block of Warren Avenue in Downers Grove.

No one was in the building when the fire began, authorities said, and no one was injured when a portion of the roof collapsed. Arson investigators were on the scene Monday.

Sandack said he feels terrible for his legislative assistant, who had worked hard packing things and organizing to move the office into its current location just three weeks ago.

“It was a small, compact, but really functional office,” Sandack said.

Sandack is seeking the Republican nomination in the March 20 primary for the 81st House District in a two-way race with Deborah Boyle. The winner will advance to the November general election.

A former mayor of Downers Grove, Sandack has served as state Senator in the 21st District since 2010.

Downers Grove firefighters said they responded at 1:43 a.m. to a report of fire coming from the building’s roof. They arrived three minutes later to find the flames shooting from the roof and thick black smoke in the neighborhood.

Early in their attack on the blaze firefighters discovered the roof structure was weakening and they were ordered out of the building before it collapsed.

Firefighters sounded a second alarm and were able to extinguish the blaze around 4:30 a.m. Fire units from Lombard, Argonne, Hinsdale, Oakbrook Terrace, Darien-Woodridge, Naperville, York Center, Oak Brook, Bolingbrook and Westmont assisted.

The building did not have a sprinkler system and was not connected to the village’s fire alarm board, authorities said.