A small fire broke out in the basement of a west Evanston home this afternoon, the city’s fire department said.
A nanny was watching a 7-year-old and doing laundry when the fire started in the basement of a single-family home in the 1700 block of Dempster Street, Division Chief Dwight Hohl said. The smoke detector went off, and the nanny immediately took the child outside while calling 911.
The fire started in the dryer and spread to the attached cabinets, but it did not reach other rooms in the house or cause structural damage, Hohl said. There were no injuries.
The first companies on the scene heard someone may have been left in the house, but multiple searches found no one else, according to the fire department.
The specific cause of the fire within the dryer is still under investigation.
— Ciara McCarthy
