Nov. 11--Two homes and six garages were damaged by fire early Tuesday in the Marquette Park neighborhood on the South Side.
The fire broke out about 1:30 a.m. in a garage in the 3500 block of West 65th Street and spread to several other garages and the homes in front of two of them, police said. No injuries were reported and firefighters extinguished the blaze before 3 a.m., authorities said.
Neighbors stood in the alleyway and watched as firefighters finished their work. Garages on the north and south sides of the alley were damaged.
One of them was reduced to a blackened frame with a burned-out minivan inside. Five other garages as well as the siding of two homes were also damaged.
Although the cause of the fire was under investigation, some neighbors reported seeing people running from the alley around the time of the blaze.
Jorge Padilla said he looked into the alley after his German shepherd began barking and spotted "bodies running by."
"I figured they had stolen something," he said. "But what could I do?"
A short time later, Padilla's dog began barking again and he spotted flames, followed closely by flashing lights of police and fire engines, he said.
Ken Jenkins stood behind yellow police tape with Padilla and another neighbor as he pointed to his own garage. The siding on the front of the garage had melted.
"The insurance is going to have to do some work," he said.
Jenkins woke to the smell of smoke and walked outside to find flames reaching "more than 20 feet," he said.
As of about 5:50 a.m., the Police Department's arson unit had not been called to the scene, and fire investigators had not determined if the fire was suspicious, authorities said.
