Evidence of arson near Libertyville house fires, police say

Libertyville police say someone attempted to start two additional fires inside unsecured garages near three homes substantially damaged in separate blazes early Thursday.

Lt. Scott Fabbri of the Libertyville Police Department said investigators uncovered evidence of attempted arson at a home in the 200 block of Homewood Drive and at another home in the 300 block of Laurel Avenue.

The homes are within blocks of each other, Fabbri said, and near two more homes where fires broke out early Thursday. The cause of those fires, in the 200 block of Homewood Drive and the 200 block of West Cook Avenue, remain under investigation by the Libertyville Fire Department and an arson investigator from the Office of the State Fire Marshal.

Fabbri would not say what causes investigators to believe the two attempted arsons are connected to the two fires reported Thursday, but said each fire resulted in minor damages. No one was injured in either the fires or the attempted arsons, he said.

Lt. Dominick Tufano of the Libertyville Fire Department said there remains a possibility that one or both house fires were set intentionally. Investigators are also looking into whether the fires are connected, he said.

In the first fire, police responding to the Homewood Drive home shortly before 3 a.m. Thursday found flames through the roof at the rear of the structure. The fire started in a screened-in breezeway connecting the house to the garage, Libertyville fire officials said.

That fire was under control within about 20 minutes, but preliminary estimates place damages at $150,000 and the residence was left uninhabitable.

Less than an hour later, at about 4:05 a.m., a newspaper delivery person called the fire department to report a structure fire on nearby West Cook Avenue.

Firefighters arrived to find a two-story detached garage ablaze. With the assistance of nine fire departments, firefighters got the blaze under control by about 5:30 a.m.

The fire started in the detached garage to the rear of the home and spread to a neighboring residence to the west, firefighters said. The garage was described as a complete loss and damage to a neighboring home was described as extensive inside and out. Damage estimates were not immediately available.

Police will be increasing patrols in the neighborhoods surrounding the subdivisions where the fires took place, Fabbri said.