Fire causes $80K in damage to Shabbona laundromat

SHABBONA – A downtown Shabbona laundromat is closed temporarily after a fire this week caused an estimated $80,000 in damages, village officials said.

The owner of Shabbona Laundromat said his business remained closed Thursday as he assessed the situation.

Shabbona Fire Chief Jon Ritter said three or four dryers were on fire when first responders arrived on scene Tuesday, but no one was injured. The building sustained tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage, however, according to Ritter’s assessment.

“There’s just soot and black on the walls and on the ceiling,” Ritter said, describing the smoke damage. “There’s an area of washing machines where the whole top of it was covered in soot and ash.”

Firefighters from Lee and Waterman also responded to the blaze. Requests for assistance from neighboring Paw Paw and Somonauk were cancelled before they arrived after the fire was brought under control, according to a Shabbona news release.

The Shabbona Fire Protection District responded to the call at 1:45 p.m. Tuesday. After reviewing radio traffic, Ritter said he believes his crews were able to extinguish the fire within five minutes of the call.

“We’ve got a lot of new crews, so we’re very happy with the crew that responded and the successful outcome,” Ritter said.

No one was inside the laundromat when the fire was reported, officials said.

The cause of the fire does not appear suspicious, according to the Shabbona Fire Protection District, which is not conducting any further investigations on the matter.

Firefighters used a pre-connected water supply to extinguish the flames before ventilating smoke out of the building.

Ritter said the scene was cleared in less than two hours.

“We had it extinguished very quickly,” Ritter said. “I think, overall, we might have been out of there in less than an hour and a half or so. Although it was an unfortunate situation for the owner of the laundromat, I think on our end we can call it a successful operation.”