Oak Park Apartment Building To Be Torn Down After Blaze
CHICAGO (CBS) -- An apartment building in Oak Park was so severely damaged by an extra-alarm blaze this week, officials have determined it must be demolished.
Fencing ringed what remains of the 3-story, 22-unit apartment building in the 200 block of Washington Boulevard on Friday.
Oak Park Chief Building Official Steven Cutaia said the building is in such bad shape it's going to have to come down.
"The building is in very poor disrepair. The owner of the building is currently researching, and trying to obtain quotes for a demolition company," he said. "We're kind of looking at maybe the possibility of saving the façade, because of its architectural features."
The rest of the building must be demolished, however.
"If you look at the inside, it's kind of obvious. It's a pretty much burned out shell."
The amount of damage also has prevented fire investigators from determining what caused the blaze.
"The extent of the damage to the building made it impossible to trace the fire to its origin," village officials said in a news release Friday.
Cutaia said he hopes another apartment building will be built in place of the one that is coming down.
The American Red Cross said it helped 40 people who were living in the building.
Cutaia said the fire department has helped residents get whatever belongings are salvageable.
"We do have a few organizations that's been helping the residents be relocated, so we are certainly obviously trying to help them out," he said.
The Oak Park Fire Department and crews from 11 neighboring fire departments helped put out the four-alarm fire that started about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. The fire was not brought under control until around 3 a.m. Wednesday. It briefly rekindled a few hours later, but was put out again.
