More than 100 residents were left without a home Sunday, Aug. 17 by a fire that charred a West Chicago apartment building.

Twenty-four units in the complex on the 800 block of Main Street were left uninhabitable by the blaze, which began around 8:30 p.m.

Fire officials said 107 people were displaced, but no one was injured.

Fourteen fire departments assisted in fighting the three-alarm blaze, which called for about 80 firefighters, officials said.

The fire has been traced to a third-floor apartment where residents were grilling on the deck — which is not permitted in the lease, said landlord Vijay Gupta.

Most of the displaced residents were able to find another place to stay Sunday night, but 17 stayed in a Red Cross shelter that was set up in the complex’s recreation room.

By 5 p.m. the next day, about 70 residents had come to the shelter to get supplies such as clothes, shoes and medicine to replace what was lost in the fire, said Red Cross volunteer Dora Koop.

Monday, Aug. 18 night all residents were able to find another place to stay: in other apartment units, nearby apartment complexes or in homes found with the help of local churches, Gupta said.

Though the damage to the building was extensive, residents were able to return Monday to see what possessions they could salvage amid the wreckage.

Gupta said insurance officials initially have pegged the damage at $500,000.

Arturo Robles lived in the unit below the source of fire with his three brothers. They were watching television when the fire started, he said.

He remembers smelling something burning but thinking nothing of it because he knew the tenants upstairs were cooking out.

“Everything was normal. Everything was fine,” he said in Spanish, speaking through a translator. “It happened so fast. Flames just started dropping down.”

He and his brothers shut the patio door and started to move furniture away from the wall, but the fire was spreading too quickly. They started carrying their things out of the apartment.

When emergency crews showed up — by which time the fire had spread to the other side of the building, Robles said — he and his brothers were barred from re-entering the building.

When they got back in to survey the damage the next day, they found clothes, electronics and documents had all been lost, he said.

“Thank God we are all OK,” he said. “That’s all that matters.”