Naperville experienced an unusual number of building fires, with not only homes but a school and a business being damaged by blazes.
“This is probably the busiest fire month for June in my entire career. We normally don’t have this much going on in the month of June,” Division Chief Daniel Smith said.
In fact, June is typically a slow month for structure fires, Smith said.
“Usually you see a higher fire load in the colder months, like the early springs or the late falls and winters,” he said.
There are a lot more things going on inside homes and other buildings that can spark a fire when it’s colder, Smith said, including furnaces or fireplace issues or human errors from people cooking more or being cooped up indoors.
The Naperville Fire Department on average sees about 25 structure fires annually.
“Last year, surprisingly, was a low fire year for us. We only had 20 big fires in 2022,” he said.
As of Monday, Naperville’s total for the year was sitting at 19.
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“We may be running a little bit ahead of our average. I’m hoping it’s just going to settle down,” Smith said.
The department has seen an uptick in mulch fires, which Smith said is probably related to the dry weather. All of Naperville was listed as under a severe drought by the U.S. Drought Monitor as of June 22.
But the dry weather has not been linked to any of the fires, Smith said.
“None of them are even remotely associated with each other,” he said.
The most recent blaze as Saturday, when an early afternoon fire on the city’s southeast side caused more than $300,000 in damage to a house in the 3300 block of Keller Lane and left it uninhabitable.
With temperatures topping 90 degrees Saturday afternoon, two firefighters needed to be treated for heat-related injuries, with one of them taken to Edward Hospital in Naperville.
A resident also was treated at the scene.
The other structure fires this month include:
June 22: 800 students and faculty members at Naperville North High School on North Mill Street were evacuated when smoke filled the school’s cafeteria shortly after noon. Fire officials said maintenance personnel accidentally ignited combustibles, causing $13,000 damage to a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning unit.
June 17: Firefighters rescued a man and a cat about 2 p.m. from a fire at a single-family home in the 1500 block of Maple Knoll Court. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
June 16: A late morning fire in the basement of a single-family home in the 1000 block of Sanctuary Lane resulted in about $15,000 in damage. The cause is still under investigation.
June 16: Firefighters responded to the 900 block of Julian Court for a fire just after 12:30 a.m. that spread from a garage to an attached house. No one was home at the time, and the damage was estimated at more than $1 million. Firefighters continue to investigate a cause.
June 5: An estimated $25,000 in damages was caused to a business in the 1800 block of High Grove Lane. A piece of mechanical equipment failed and caught fire late in the afternoon, according to fire reports.