Park Ridge officials are investigating whether a suspicious garage fire early Thursday is the work of a serial arsonist who authorities say has menaced the city and surrounding communities since last spring.
Fire inspectors sifting through the remains of the building, in the 200 block of Ridge Terrace, ruled out accidental causes, Park Ridge Fire Capt. Craig Gjelsten said.
“There’s really no other way to go than to call it suspicious,” Gjelsten said.
Firefighters arrived at the blaze shortly before 1 a.m. to find the two-car wooden structure engulfed in flames hot enough to melt overhead power lines and shatter 12 windows at St. Paul of the Cross Junior High School, directly across the alley, Gjelsten said. No cars were in the garage at the time.
Crews extinguished the fire quickly, but not until it caused $25,000 in damage to the garage and school, Gjelsten said. No injuries were reported.
Thursday’s incident is the first suspicious fire to strike the area since late last month, but it is among nearly 20 recorded since April, said Park Ridge Police Chief Robert Colangelo.
Investigators believe one person is responsible for those blazes, as well as several in Niles and on Chicago’s Far Northwest Side, because they took place in a 10-block area under similar circumstances.
A task force involving officials from those municipalities and the state fire marshal is probing the incidents, while the FBI is developing a profile of the arsonist.
Once Park Ridge police detectives obtain evidence Friday, they will determine whether the latest fire is connected to the previous ones, Colangelo said.
“We’re not sure right now. It is in the area of the others,” he said.
The epidemic has frustrated Colangelo, who said his department is using “every tool available” to catch the firebug.
The garage owner, Jim McCormick, hopes he has not become the latest victim.
“I didn’t pay much attention to the problem before, but now I will,” said McCormick, 59, whose undamaged wood-frame house sits several feet from the garage site.
