A man who left ground beef cooking on the stove while he went to the bathroom for around 10 minutes early Wednesday returned to the kitchen to find it ablaze.
The flames, in a brick century-plus-old quadruplex in North Alton at 609 Mather St., burned the kitchen and dining area. There also was smoke damage to the bedroom, living room and bathroom in the second floor unit, said Chief Bernie Sebold of the Alton Fire Department.
“It is not habitable,” he said of that apartment, but the other three units in the building are OK in which to live. Sebold said the tenant did not have renters insurance, but he does have family to stay with.
There were no injuries in the fire, but the chief said a woman living in the other upstairs unit later took an ambulance to a local hospital emergency department to be checked out for any smoke inhalation.
Sebold said when the tenant returned to the kitchen and discovered the flames, he pounded on the doors of the other three apartments to rouse the occupants. One of the other tenants called 911 at 4:05 a.m.
Upon arrival, firefighters saw flames coming from two windows on that front, upper apartment, the chief said.
“The residents all were out of the building and the firefighters pulled the hoseline up the exterior stairway to the apartment,” Sebold said. “The fire quickly consumed two rooms, the kitchen and the dining area.”