Villa Park fire kills woman, dog

A Villa Park woman and her dog died in an apartment fire Sunday that is still under investigation, fire officials said Tuesday.

Villa Park Fire Department Chief Ron Rakosnik said the woman, 58, was found unresponsive in her home. Her name is not being released until the DuPage County coroner’s autopsy results are available. The coroner could not be reached Tuesday.

The Villa Park Fire Department arrived just three minutes after an 11:16 a.m. call about a fire in a four-unit apartment complex in the 300 block of North Princeton Avenue.

Rakosnik said it looked as though flames started in the first-floor unit’s kitchen. The Illinois State Fire Marshal’s Office assisted to test for any accelerants that would indicate foul-play and found none.

“It doesn’t appear to be suspicious at all,” Rakosnik said.

The woman lived with her husband who was at church at the time of the fire, Rakosnik said. Neighbors called 911.

Smoke damage temporarily displaced the three other families living in the neighboring units. There was also some heat damage to the stairwell, Rakosnik said. No one else in the building was injured; nor were firefighters.

Major fire damage was confined to the woman’s unit. The fire department estimated $150,000 in damage to the structure and $50,000 to its contents.

The DuPage County Fire Investigation Task Force and neighboring fire departments assisted Villa Park along with the state fire marshal and the county coroner.

Rakosnik said he expected the fire investigation to wrap up in the next week.