The Berwyn Fire Department has called in the help of the Office of the State Fire Marshall to help investigate an early Friday, June 12, blaze that displaced 10 members of two families, destroyed three homes, and wreaked havoc on a nearby property.

About 60 firefighters spent more than six hours battling the blaze that destroyed three consecutive homes in the 1300 block of Elmwood Avenue, Berwyn Fire Chief Denis O’Halloran said. No one was injured in the fire.

By the time the fire was out, piles of charred lumber were all that remained of the middle home. Windows on the neighboring homes had been boarded while the roofs and sides were severely burned.

“It was overwhelming,” O’Halloran said. “We lost that house from the beginning.”

The cause and origin of the fire were still under investigation as of Monday, June 15, O’Halloran said, and the Fire Marshall’s office had already been called to help investigate. O’Halloran declined to say whether either department had been able to rule out arson as a cause.

Crews from the Berwyn Public Works Department spent much of the afternoon cleaning up the site, which was still waterlogged from the fire hoses.

Damonn Payton, who lives two doors down from the house of origin, said he called the police at about 12:30 a.m. after his dog started barking.

“I got up, looked out and saw the flames shooting out of the windows,” Payton said. “It was just a big ball of fire.”

A Berwyn police officer was first on the scene at about 12:30 a.m. after police received the first call from an unreadable cell phone number.

“Berwyn (police), by protocol, dispatched a unit to the scene,” O’Halloran said. “The officer turned the corner and saw the middle house fully engulfed in flames, and the houses on each side were already on fire.”

The responding officer called for back-up and assisted in evacuating nearby residents. O’Halloran said the blaze broke out in the middle home, which was vacant and being remodeled, before spreading to the houses on either side. Seven other nearby homes sustained fire, smoke or heat damage. A garage and two cars inside also were heavily damaged.

Fire officials were still trying to determine who owned the middle home, O’Halloran said. A contractor had been hired to remodel the home but could not provide a specific owner.

On Monday, O’Halloran said it was too early to estimate the total cost of the damage, although the damage to the home of origin was listed as $200,000.

“It’s pretty huge,” he said.

Fire units from North Riverside, Stickney, Cicero, Forest Park, Oak Park, River Forest, Lyons, and Broadview assisted in battling the blaze.