More On Fires & Foreclosures

According to Burr Ridge Suburban Life, a house in Burr Ridge, Illinois bought from a bank for $1.1 million in December, 2006 went up in flames a month later. The homeowners, a husband and wife, left the country for Syria shortly thereafter. Almost six months after being gutted by fire, the spacious three-story house on one of Burr Ridge’s most prominent streets remains boarded up, and the now former owners (the mortgage lender has since foreclosed on the property) are still out of the country. Authorities don't know why they left (and possibly don't know if they are ever coming back) and the DuPage County Arson Task Force has yet to determined the cause of the fire. The village of Burr Ridge is waiting for the bank that now owns the property to grant authorization for demolition. For more, see Village awaits bank’s OK for house demolition.

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WZZM-TV Channel 13 in Grand Rapids, Michigan reports that a vacant foreclosed house owned by out-of-town lender Fidelity Bank of Kansas went up in flames at the end of June. After over two weeks after the fire, Fidelity finally boarded up and secured the premises. Neighbors say the house is a hazard and feared neighborhood children would get on to the property. Reportedly, the house sits next to a church and will be torn down eventually, damaging the surounding neighbors' home values in the meantime. No mention if arson is suspected. For more, see After weeks, burned house is boarded for safety.

To see the fire, the aftermath, and the interview with the neighbors, go here to watch WZZM-TV report.

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The Columbus Dispatch reports on a fire-ravaged house in foreclosure in Mifflin Township, Ohio that still stands vacant after four years, with grass growing high in the trash-strewn yard and nobody knows what to do with it. Boards over the windows keep falling off, allowing troublemakers to break in. Bank One, now JPMorgan Chase and Co., foreclosed and agreed to buy the property at a sheriff's sale in 2006 but then backed off, court records show (the mortgage lender obviously doesn't want it). The homeowner's attorney sent a letter to the Franklin County, Ohio Board of Health, saying he is physically and financially unable to care for the property (the owner obviously doesn't want it, either).

(Presumably, the real estate taxes aren't being paid on the property, either - but I doubt that the county wants to foreclose; they probably don't want the house, either.)

Reportedly, local officials say the township and county are prevented by state law from demolishing the property. Meanwhile, the house continues to sit, in all its majesty, damaging the surrounding neighbors' home values. For more, see Mifflin Township residents, officials seek fix for fire-damaged house.

For other posts on fires & foreclosures, go here and go here. zebra