Early morning blaze destroys Naperville house

An early morning blaze destroyed a Naperville house Friday but no injuries were reported, authorities said.

Firefighters were called at 4:39 a.m. to 510 White Oak Drive, the home of Russell's Dry Cleaning owner Russell Breitweiser.

Crews were on the scene within minutes but the intensity of the fire and difficulty reaching the main body of it drove them out of the house.

Portions of the first floor of the building collapsed into the basement as the fire raged and officials reported several small explosions and one large explosion due to materials in the basement.

Stan Systo, Breitweiser's son-in-law, said Breitweiser was an avid hunter and fisherman and had shotguns and ammunition in the basement. He said he doesn't believe they were tied to the fire but may have caused noise that sounded like explosions.

"That stuff doesn't even explode in a fire, it pops like firecrackers basically," Systo said.

Assistant Fire Chief Rich Mikel said firefighters were not able to reach the basement to find out what caused the explosions.

No one was injured in the blaze. Breitweiser was in Arizona at the time.

Officials say the house and its contents were destroyed but a dollar estimate is not yet available.

Breitweiser had lived in the house since 1970 and was a collector, saving everything from old pictures and family heirlooms to sportsman's memorabilia," according to Systo.

"It's devastating," he said. "You look at it and know everything is gone."

The cause of the fire is not yet known but Mikel said it is not being viewed as suspicious. He expects determining a cause will take more time than usual due to the damage the house sustained and ice accumulations.

Crews still were on the scene as of 12:30 p.m. and were rotating with personnel from other Naperville stations due to the extreme cold.

Mikel said they are working to extinguish "pockets of fire that are almost impossible to get to."

"We can't go inside because it's unsafe, unstable," he said. "We're trying to get water on the outside as best as we can. Sometimes we have to let the fire burn through and create a hole to get through to where the deep seated fire is."