A Monday morning fire left a Wilmette house uninhabitable with smoke, fire and water damage, and sent its owner to Evanston Hospital for evaluation after smoke inhalation, Wilmette Fire Chief Mike McGreal said.
The fire in a two-story frame residence on the 400 block of 9th Street, was called in shortly after 2:30 a.m. on Aug. 29, and eventually involved fire crews from Evanston, Northfield, Winnetka, Glenview, Morton Grove and Highland Park, either on the scene or acting as in-station department backup, McGreal said.
Crews brought the blaze under control and extinguished it within 10 minutes of arriving at the house about six minutes after the alarm came in, McGreal said, but crews stayed on the scene for about two hours.
Fire crews found a large amount of combustible materials in the home, but the cause of the fire is still under investigation, he said. Area social services are helping the 69-year-old owner of the house, he said.
The Aug. 29 fire on 9th Street is the sixth house fire Wilmette has battled since July 23. The department also fought a fire earlier this month at the Imperial Motors Jaguar dealership on Green Bay Road.
“We’re going through a period where we’re busier than normal for structure fires,” McGreal said.
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