Crime & Safety
Air Conditioner Fire Damages Plainfield Home
The homeowner helped douse the blaze before firefighters arrived, preventing further damage.
A homeowner was displaced by a fire that apparently started in a window-mounted air conditioning unit, officials said Tuesday night.
Plainfield Deputy Fire Chief Jon Stratton said the fire was called in around 7 p.m. after the homeowner spotted the blaze in the 14100 block of Naperville Road.
Stratton said the man, who is the only occupant of the home, had turned on the air conditioner around 3:30 p.m. before leaving to run some errands. The resident returned around 7 p.m. and was at his parents' home next door when he spotted the fire, Stratton said.
"He pulled the garden hose around and helped stop a lot of it from spreading," Stratton said. Even so, the home sustained significant interior and smoke damage from the fire, he said, and was uninhabitable Tuesday night.
Stratton said investigators are looking into the cause of the fire, but believe it originated in the air conditioner.
"Sometimes they overheat," Stratton said. "It's hard to say at this point."
No one was injured in the fire, according to Stratton.
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