Posted by admin

She saw the hot coal fall from the fireplace into a hole in the floor, and went to the kitchen to get some water.  By the time the elderly woman returned to the living room of her mobile home in Maize on Monday night, the fire was out of control. She escaped without injury, but her home was destroyed.  Fire officials say the fire is a reminder of how important it is to have fireplaces inspected before using them.  “This one probably shouldn’t have been burned in, but she didn’t know that,” Sedgwick County Fire Marshal Tim Millspaugh said.  The woman had moved into the mobile home the day before, he said. Her daughter and son-in-law had just bought it for her.  She used the fireplace to ward off the cold. She was adding another log to the fire when the coal dropped into the hole.

Posted by admin

A missing fireplace poker belonging to a Naperville couple found shot to death near the bludgeoned bodies of their daughter and son-in-law in their Aurora home may hold a crucial clue to solving the bloody crime.  Others details also emerged Saturday to reveal a possible second crime scene in Naperville after investigators found blood evidence on a mattress in the older couple’s home, according to sources close to the case.  Meanwhile, the interrogation of a 28-year-old relative held since early Friday in a Portage, Wis., jail cell stalled by Saturday after the man invoked his right to have a lawyer, the sources said.  Eric C. Hanson repeatedly denied killing his family.  Prosecutors secured an arrest warrant on felony intimidation charges against him several hours after the bodies were found Thursday.

Posted by admin

GURNEE — An apparent problem with the gas line on a fireplace Thursday sparked a fire that damaged a house in the 17000 block of Cunningham Court.  Two people inside the home escaped without injury after a neighbor noticed smoke and flames coming from the chimney’s exterior around 5 p.m., according to Lt. Joe Arnold of the Gurnee Fire Department. Arnold said the fire apparently began inside a wall, and flames “were following the chimney all the way to the top” of the two-story structure.  Fire crews were on the scene for some 90 minutes, assisted by the Newport and Grayslake fire departments. Damage was contained to the chimney and a room on the second floor.