UTICA, Ill. — More than two dozen units were destroyed in a massive fire Monday, May 30 at the Grand Bear Resort at Starved Rock.
The Utica Fire Protection District said the fire broke out just before 5:30 p.m. Monday on the front porch of one of the cabins. Someone was staying in the cabin where the fire started at the time, according to fire officials. Upon arrival, firefighters found two cabins completely engulfed. Strong winds caused the fire to quickly spread to the other buildings.
Seven of the villa buildings were destroyed, each containing four living units, a total of 28 residences.
"Once that first building became fully involved with fire, it started throwing hot embers and ashes on all the buildings that were directly north downwind," said Utica Fire Protection District Assistant Fire Chief Drew Partain during a press conference Tuesday. "So that's what caused so quickly to have all those cabins on fire."
While the fire was contained shortly after 8 p.m., crews continued to tackle hot spots throughout the night and Tuesday morning.
"Those seven buildings are all in piles in the basement," Partain said. "And we literally have to dig them apart to douse all the hotspots to put them out finally. So we're down to just a couple of departments here, but we are still working."
The fire was in an area where the homes are privately owned and are part of an association connected to the main resort. The lodge, waterpark and the majority of the cabins and villas at the resort were unaffected by the fire.
Shelia Brombosz and her husband Mike moved into their unit almost four years ago. The two are high school sweethearts, married for almost 50 years.
"Our master bedroom we had, we're lucky enough to have a unit where you could look up," she said. "The only way I always would compare is that we were in the tree tops."
They were making dinner when the fire started.
"(Mike) thought he smelled something. I said, 'Maybe it's a fire pit? I didn't know,'" Brombosz said. "And two seconds later, the whole block was full of white smoke and then you could just see the red from one cabin."
She was able to grab her purse which had both of their passports in it and went knocking on the other doors in her building to make sure no one else was home.
Everything in the Brombosz's house is gone.
"Belongings, they don't mean anything. Of course, we have memories. His mother's wedding dress is gone, a roll-top desk that he built when he was in high school, it was gorgeous, is gone," Brombosz said. "It's just been, I don't know what else to say, it's just devastating."
The fire also comes at the start of the busy vacation rental season. Mark Phill is from Geneva, Illinois, and owns 14 units that he rents out. Seven were destroyed in the fire.
"We've owned it for over 15 years," Phill said. "This is getting to be our busiest time of the year, so they were fully booked, and there was a lot of revenue, and we just got out of COVID. So we were looking forward to this year, especially the summer months."
More than 60 fire departments and around 200 firefighters responded to the fire.
"They put their lives on the line," Brombosz said. "They stood in it smoking. All the communities that came to help us, I mean, there (were) towns I'd never even heard of that came."
The firefighters also had no access to fire hydrants because the resort is in a rural area.
"We had approximately 40 trucks hauling water in," Partain said. "I can't tell you how many gallons we used, but it was in the 5-10 million range."
This isn't the first large-scale fire that has plagued the resort. In January 2018, a fire at the Grand Bear Resort waterpark left a large hole in the roof and forced guests to evacuate. There were no injuries reported.