Woodstock Fire/Rescue District 435 E. Judd St Woodstock. IL 60098 (815) 338-2621 y % Pe rmesOo FIRE INVESTIGATION REPORT Incident Address: 2101, 2103, 2105, 2107 Willow Brook Drive Alarm Number: 2017-01047 Incident Date: 03/25/17 Nature of Incident: Structure Fire INV. Notes: Page 1 of 5 Submitted by: FF Investigator Mike Shannon Date Submitted: Title: FF Investigator Mike Shannon Signature: Scene Report- On March 25" 2017 |, FF Mike Shannon investigated a structure fire at 2105 Willow Brook Drive Apartment 2A. | arrived on scene at 03:45, the fire was still burning and had followed the roof structure and now involved Buildings 2107, 2103, 2101. The building complex had a total of 32 apartments. I contacted the shift commander LT. Nick Weir and advised him that | and FF Investigator Paul Heiderman would be investigating this fire. After the fire was put out Paul and | started the investigation. | conducted a 360 walk around of the complex is approximately 50x200. | started my investigation at building 2107; | worked ina counter clockwise movement throughout my investigation of the exterior and interior of the buildings. Starting on side A of building 2107 | noted the roof structure was burnt off, the eves have smoke and heat damage. The facade on this building is burnt out and the rafters exposed with smoke and fire damage. The lower half of the building had no damage to the building nor to the sliding doors and the windows. Moving to the right, building 2105 side A had no roof structure left the eves were damaged by fire and smoke. The two upper apartments on the A side were damaged siding and eve damage, the decks had damage and the slider doors were broken along with the windows. Moving right again, building 2103 side A building had fire and smoke damage to the eves also the roof was partly burnt off. The fagade had fire damage, from the roof /wall area there was no damage to the A side of this building all windows and doors were in tack.Woodsiock Fire/Rescue District 435 E. Judd St. Woodstock. IL 60098 Sogmees’ (815) 338-2621 Moving right again building 2101 had no damage to the A side at all. I then moved to side D, on building 2101 this side had no building damage at all. | then moved to side C of building 2101 had no fire damage at all. Building 2103 on the C side had some fire and smoke damage to the eves, looking into the eves the trusses were soot stained. The windows and doors were still in tack. Moving to the right to building 2105 side C there was heavy fire damage to the back of the building. The roof was burnt off and the decks were burned off, the windows and doors were all broken and building walls were damaged. Moving to building 2107 C side, the roof was burnt off, all the siding was melted off the upper level, and the decks were both damaged by fire. The lower level had smoke and heat damage. Side B of this building had damage to the building at the roof line and some melted siding below that. Also in front of 2105 building there were seven cars damaged by the fire. FF/ Investigator Paul Heiderman will be conducting the investigation and provide a report. | started my investigation in the interior of building 2107-1 A, 1B, 1C, 1D all had water and smoke damage. All entry doors were damaged by fire department operations. Apartment C had some drywall damage from fire department checking for fire extension. Building 2107- 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D all had water and smoke damage. Apartment 2B the ceiling was burnt out along with the roof missing in bed room. Apartment 2C the ceiling was missing along with the roof in the bedroom and living room. All doors damaged from fire department operations. Building 2105- 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D all had very heavy water damage and also smoke damage. The upper and lower hallway was heavily damaged by water, smoke, and overhaul operations. Building 2105- apartment 2A had extensive fire damage in living room, kitchen, and bathroom. [noted heavy fire damage in the wall studs and ceiling rafters. The sliding glass door was broken and frame burned away. The all contents were heavily damaged by fire, water, and smoke. Building 2105 — 2B this apartment the roof was burned off, causing a lot of interior damage from water and ceiling collapsing. Building 2105- 2C this apartment also had the roof burnt off in the bedroom and kitchen area. This caused a lot of interior damage from fire, water and overhaul operations. All the windows were broken and sliding door broken. The room was down to the wall studs in all rooms, ceiling collapsed in kitchen and bedroom. Most of the contents in this apartment were burned away.Woodstock Fire/Rescue District 436 E. Judd St Woodstock. IL 60098 (815) 338-2621 % RepesO* Bullding 2105-20 this apartment also had heavy damage due to roof and ceiling and collapse. Most of the contents were lost or very badly damaged because of fire. This apartment also had a lot of water and smoke damage, Building 2103- 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D all had water and smoke damage. Fire crews poked holes in each of the rooms to check for extension of the fire. All entry doors were damaged by fire department operations. Apartment 1C fire department was able to tarp some personal belongings. All windows and sliding glass doors left in tack. Building 2103- 2A, 2C, 2D all had water and smoke damage. All Entry doors were damaged by fire department operations. All windows and sliding glass doors left in tack. Apartment 2B the bedroom ceiling collapsed and the roof above was burnt out. This apartment had more water and smoke damage than the rest on this floor. Building 2101- 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D all had minimal water and smoke damage. Entry doors damaged during fire department operations. These units were affected the least by this apartment complex fire. Building 2101- 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D all had minimal water and smoke damage. Entry doors were damaged during fire department operations. All windows and sliding glass doors were left tack. | then talked with the first engine crew on scene E-32, the engine officer LT. Keefe stated the fire was located in the upper deck and wall area on the south exterior wall of building 2105 apartment 2A. LT. Keefe also stated that the sliding glass door was still in tack, and had not broken yet. LT. Keefe also stated that the front area of building 2105 was fully involved in fire. He was then ordered to hit the fire with the deck gun, which he did. The first witness to the fire was @iREE n, he lives a 3 Bs Mr.@BS¥238 stated he was woken up by his dog she needed to go outside to the bathroom, Mr. @ESg2E8took the dog outside between the buildings of 2107 and 2091. The dog did her business, this was at approximately 3:00 AM. He stated that he did not hear anything or smell any smoke at this time. He then went back to his apartment he then opened his window because he and his wife were hot. He then said his wife and him smelled smoke and burning plastic so they closed the window. Mra then went out on his deck to see if he could see anything, he saw smoke coming from the building next door which would be 2107 thru 2101. He then called 911 to report a fire in the building next door. He then went back out and walked towards the smoke which was coming from building 2105. As he walked closer the smoke was changing from white to a gray color. He then stated he saw the fire in the corner of the wall on the upper deck of building 2105 apartment 2A. He also stated that the smoke was pushing like under pressure he thought from the area where he could see flames. He then started to notify the tenants that there was a fire, Mr. E909 also said that he could see the reflection of the fire on the sliding glass door when he was pushing the door buzzers to notify the tenants.Woodstock Fire/Rescue District 435 E. Judd St. Woodstock. IL 60088 Saepeees (815) 338-2621 Ithen spoke with the apartment renter SSM she stated her and her boyfriend were sleeping and woken by their dog and what she thought was some type of crash (something breaking) her boyfriend then went out into living room and could see fire outside on the deck in the corner, he then got her and the dog up and moving out of the apartment and when they were leaving the room the sliding glass door broke and lit up the blinds for the door. She also said the smoke was too thick to leave out the front so they went out the back exit. | asked what they did that night. §aiagg stated that they watched Netflix and chilled. | asked her what things she kept on the outside deck, she said a wire rack with flower pots and a wood spool table, her boyfriend had brought a dining room chair out there earlier around 1:00 pm to sit outside and chill out. That is all that was on the deck at the time of the fire. | asked @J@888 if her or her boyfriend smoked and she said no. | also asked if they had any friends over that night that smoked she said no, nobody was there all night. I then spoke with @§23258% he is the boyfriend of BB he was in the apartment that night with ERB He stated to me that around 1:00 pm on Friday March 24" 2017 he took a dining room chair and sat out on the deck and had a beer and was listing to music. He was out on’ deck couple of hours, he then took the dog outside. He then came back to apartment and waited for to get home from work. Around 6:00pm he left to go to the gym and did not get back to 8:30pm. After he got home the two of them had dinner and then watched TV until around 11:30 pm and then went to bed. At about 3:20 am their dog woke them up and was wining {A then got up to see what was going on and when he went out in to the living room he could see the fire on the deck in the corner he stated the fire was shooting out from wall (like a jet engine) he then gathered his girlfriend and dog at left the apartment. While that was going on the patio door broke and then he could hear a loud sound from the fire. and @@BRW started to exit out the front of building but could see flames dancing across the front door and decided to go out the rear exit. | asked EB if he was smoking out on the deck that day he told me no, he was also asked if he was grilling out there that day or night he say no they don't have a grill. | then asked what was out on the deck the night of the fire he told me the dining room chair a wooden spool table and a wire rack holding three flower pots used for tomato’s in the summer. The next person I talked with was the first police officer on scene his name is Charles Vorderer Badge #73. He stated to me that when he pulled up from the west that he could see fire and a lot of smoke on the upper deck of building 2105. He stated the fire was located in corner of the deck area. He then started to notify residents of the fire. His report number 17- 3839, I then conducted a scene examination with FF investigator Paul Heiderman. We started at the upper deck of apartment 2-A building 2105 the deck area where the fire started. We located parts of the chair and what was left of the wooden spool table. The fire had burned through the deck in and around the corner wall area and all that debris was on the cement patio of the apartment below (1A). We then went down to the debris pile on cement patio of 1A we had the pile photographed and we systematically went through the pile looking for any type of ignition sources. There were no ignition sources found in the pile, what was located were parts of theWoodstock Fire/Rescue District 435 E. Judd St. Woodstock. IL. 60098 (815) 338-2621 flower pots, the wire rack that was holding the pots, the dirt from the pots. The pile of debris was covered and secured. After completing the scene evaluation we were unable determine the cause of the fire. We requested the State Fire Marshall to assist our department in finding the origin and cause of this fire. The State Fire Marshall arrived on scene at 12:00 noon. State Fire Marshall Mitch Kushner conducted a scene examination and interviews see his report for his findings. After the State Fire Marshall Mitch Kushner conducted his investigation he met with the Woodstock Fire Investigators Mike Shannon and Paul Heiderman and we determined the origin of the fire to be in the building 2105 Apartment 2A south exterior wall at the northeast corer. The ignition source would be the framing material inside the wall caused by a possible malfunction in and electric base board heater or electric circuits located on the inside of the room where we determined the origin to be on the outside of the building. We came up with this conclusion based on witness statements, physical evidence and systematic scene examination. At this time we are ruling this fire to be accidental. This ruling could change if new information where to be located and reviewed.