Fire displaces residents of 18 units of Mount Prospect building

Residents of 18 units of an apartment building in Mount Prospect have been displaced by a fire about 9 a.m. Wednesday that did $500,000 damage, fire officials said.

The building is in the Forest Cove apartment complex on Busse Road just south of Algonquin Road. The complex's management company will move the displaced residents to vacant units in other buildings in the complex, officials said. Red Cross and personnel with the Mount Prospect Human Services and Building departments assisted residents and ensured the building's safety.

Fire officials said the blaze was brought under control within 20 minutes, but crews continued to work at the scene for the following two hours. One police officer was transported due to smoke inhalation and two residents were treated on the scene. The lives of one dog and one cat were lost due to the fire while three cats and two turtles were saved, officials said.

While only three units were heavily damaged, there was smoke throughout the building, and the gas and power lines to the building were cut, displacing everyone.

The fire started in a second floor unit and spread up to the third floor, where Alberto Maldonado first learned of the fire when police knocked on his door and told him to evacuate.

Maldonado escaped with his wife, two dogs and a cat, but another cat was still inside, he said as he watched flames pour from the back of his unit. He has lived in the unit three years and has renter's insurance. "This is the only part good," he said.

Santiago Magallon, who lived in the bottom unit and has been in the complex 12 years, wasn't so lucky as he doesn't have insurance and his unit suffered major water damage. He said this is only the second major fire in his time there, so the risk didn't seem that great. He learned of the fire when his wife Emily called him at work.

"We lost everything," he said, as firefighters continued to work to extinguish the blaze.

The building contains 24 units, six of which are vacant. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Firefighters from Arlington Heights, Elk Grove Township and Des Plaines assisted at the scene with firefighters from Rolling Meadows, Arlington Heights and Glenview assisting with 10 other emergency calls in the town.