Downed Power Lines Start Electrical Fire, Destroy Forest Hills Garage [VIDEO]

Power lines lying against a detached Forest Hills garage, lines that the previously had confirmed as dead, suddenly roared to life early Thursday morning at about 12:13 a.m., spraying electrical arcs and eventually setting the garage ablaze.

Village firefighters battled the blaze for about an hour and a half before ComEd was able to shut down the line just before 2:00 a.m., but not before the flames had scorched the garage interior, including a car, and caused an estimated $60,000 in damage. [See above for video and photos.]

The lines appeared to have been knocked onto the garage when lightning from Wednesday night’s fierce flash thunderstorm struck a pole running behind the Bonistalli home on the 4800 block of Fair Elms Avenue sometime around 10:20 p.m. Witnesses said the downed line sprayed visible electrical arcs and started a small fire, which was quelled by the time fire personnel arrived and confirmed that the line was dead.

“It was like a Fourth of July fireworks display gone bad,” said home resident Jeff Bonistalli. “Our whole backyard just lit up in silver and gold. Then it stopped—and then it did it again.”

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“The firemen told us not to look directly at it,” recalled next-door neighbor Pat Pollard. “It had a very loud, intense buzzing. We have no power, and it illuminated the entire inside of my house with what looked like a massive fireplace.”

Fire personnel had readmitted the Bonistallis to their home, then left for the 4200 block of Rose Avenue, where a lightning-struck tree had smashed a hole in a resident’s roof. They had retired for the night when, around 12:13 a.m. Thursday morning, the sparks suddenly flew again.

“I had gotten back to my house,’ Deputy Chief Gary Mayor of the Fire Department recalled. “I just live a couple blocks south of here [on Central]—the power came back on at my house and within a minute, 30 seconds, the pagers went off for a report of a fire with the wires arcing here.”

The Bonistallis evacuated across the street and called 911 for the second time that evening. The Department called ComEd, and then could only try to keep the fire in the garage contained as falling rain kept the electricity flying.

“All we could do was stand by, put some water on the back and wait for ComEd to get here,” Mayor said.

Mayor said "all indications" are that the Department's dispatchers contacted ComEd sometime shortly after 10:20 a.m., and that the company was again notified at 12:20 a.m., and 1:09 a.m. The company's personnel arrived at 1:41 a.m. and power was cut to the line, after which the fire was quickly quelled.

Although officially unconfirmed, witnesses believe the fire was started because the downed lines were re-energized. “[ComEd] re-energized somewhere, and probably didn’t know that this was down,” said Mayor.

Neighbor Pollard said he was “very upset” with the electric company.

“I had just spoken to Commonwealth Edison five minutes earlier reminding them of the downed power line that they said they had heard nothing of,” Pollard said. “[Then] this electric line was burning for over an hour and a half. I called Commonwealth Edison three times, and each of the times they didn’t know that there was a downed line causing an electrical fire.

“The poor Western Springs Fire Department had to just stand there for an hour and a half and watch as the electrical fire burned.”

A spokeswoman for ComEd said she would “have to look into this particular situation and see what our records indicate.” [Update: ComEd spokesman David O'Dowd told Patch that, "all I know is, it's in claims and it's being investigated... It's obviously being investigated right now."]

No one was injured in the fire. The Bonistallis' home remained unscathed by the fire, but their finished basement was flooded. The basement damage was not yet estimated.