Angry Far West Side Neighbors Want Fire Damaged House Leveled

JOLIET, IL — City of Joliet community development director Kendall Jackson told Joliet Patch he is optimistic that a fire damaged house in the city's far west side Kendall Ridge subdivision will be leveled by demolition crews within the next several weeks.

On Feb. 18, Joliet's City Council voted to designate the fire-damaged property at 1836 Kendall Ridge Blvd. as a public nuisance. But that was not good enough for the neighbors.

Laura and Steven Klecka, who live in an adjacent property, attended the March 3 council meeting. They implored city officials to get rid of this subdivision eyesore as soon as possible.

Joliet Patch previously reported the fire broke out around 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 17. Three adults who were living at the one-story, wood-frame structure made it out safely. The Joliet Fire Department estimated the blaze caused about $260,000 in damage.

On Monday, Jackson told Patch that Joliet's efforts to get the house bulldozed have been slowed because the property was in a foreclosure at the time of the blaze. Further complicating matters, Jackson added, the property owner has recently filed for bankruptcy.

The good news is that a demolition contract has been signed between the property owner and the insurance company, Jackson told Patch. He, along with the city's neighborhood services division and building department, visited the property on Kendall Ridge Boulevard last week to assess the situation.

Jackson believes the house will be toppled within the next several weeks, rather than in several months.

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Kendall Ridge resident Laura Klecka urged the City Council last week to help her and her neighbors.

"On the night of January 17, my family was awakened to the startling sounds of an explosion and subsequent sounds of what seemed to be fireworks," Klecka told city officials. "We quickly learned the property next door ... was on fire."

Hers was one of several surrounding homes evacuated by the Joliet Fire Department for safety precautions. According to Klecka, the fire melted the siding on the garage side of her house and the chemicals from the fire infiltrated the inside. This caused her family to evacuate their property for the next three weeks, she told the council.

That was in January. It's now March.

"The remnants of the almost entirely burned structure have yet to be cleaned up," she complained to the council. "This proposes a health hazard on my family and the neighbors around me ... A chain-link fence does not mitigate the dangers of the charcoal soot nor the pieces of debris falling."