Laundry causes smoke damage to Chester house
<span>A combination of hot towels, cleaning chemicals and a laundry tote apparently caused extensive smoke damage to a house in Chester on Monday afternoon.</span>
<span>The house, at 1047 3rd St., is owned by Ron Clark. Bert said Clark lived at the residence with his girlfriend and her grandchildren.</span>
<span>"I called the state fire marshall (Bruce Dahlem) and talked to him and they have more instances of this happening in the commercial sense with the chemicals causing spontaneous combustion," said Chester Fire Chief Marty Bert. "It doesn't flare up like gasoline, it's just a gradual burn."</span>
<span>After further investigation on Tuesday, Dahlem ruled the fire accidental. Dahlem is an arson investigator with the Illinois State Fire Marshal's office.</span>
<span>Bert said the girlfriend had removed the bath towels, some of which were from her place of employment at Reids' Harvest House Smorgasbord, from the dryer and put them in the laundry tote prior to leaving the house with the grandchildren around noon on Monday.</span>
<span>When the family returned around 2:45 p.m., the house was full of smoke. The girlfriend then used water from the sink to put the fire out.</span>
<span>"She didn't let the dryer cycle complete," Bert said. "The (towels) were pulled out during the heating cycle."</span>
<span>Bert also described the damage to the home.</span>
<span>"Everything you touch in there is black," Bert said. "Floor to ceiling."</span>
<span>Bert advised citizens to put their laundry in a clothes basket, rather than a tote - which can trap heat inside.</span>
<span>"The clothes basket has holes in it and air around it," he said. "There's no place for the heat to get out in a tote."</span>
<span>The 3rd Street call was the fourth one for the Chester Fire Department on Monday, which also responded to a vehicle fire, a structure fire on Kaskaskia Street and a rekindle call for the Kaskaskia Street fire.</span>
<span>No one was injured in any of the calls.</span>