3-Alarm Fire Consumes Historic IL Masonic Temple

Oct. 8--Fire destroyed the historic Lincoln Masonic Temple in downtown Aurora overnight Monday into Tuesday, according to fire officials. The fire was reported in the vacant building around 10 p.m. and it burned until about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, causing significant damage, said Aurora Fire Department spokesman Capt. Jim Rhodes.

For the safety of firefighters, they took a defensive exterior attack and did not enter the building, Rhodes said.

In the past few years, there have been issues with the vacant building -- such as exterior walls falling down due to wear and tear.

"Our biggest concern was the safety of our guys," Rhodes said. "Because of the weakened state of the building its already in, we can't be as aggressive as we normally are on house fires."

The temple is located at the corner of Benton Street and Lincoln Avenue on the edge of downtown Aurora, and the fire shut down surrounding streets.

Firefighters are, in general, much more cautious with vacant buildings because there can be maintenance issues that do not get addressed, said Fire Marshal Javan Cross.

Cross said firefighters also had to fight the fire from the top down because of the lack of windows in the building.

"Normally in a fire, we can shoot water through open windows but there isn't many -- when you think of the square footage of the space," Cross said. "Even though some windows were broken, we couldn't get a tremendous volume of water to hit anything that was burning."

The cause of the fire and total dollar loss is still under investigation, Rhodes said.

Cross said due to the size of the building and the time of the day the fire occurred, a team is coming out to conduct an investigation. It wasn't immediately clear whether foul play is suspected. The temple was built in 1922 and was vacant for nearly the past 11 years.

It was on the Aurora City Council's radar as recently as August, when officials said they were considering whether to revitalize the building or tear it down. The building at 104 S. Lincoln Ave. has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1982.

In 2009, Landmarks Illinois included it on its list of 10 most endangered historic sites. The building most recently was occupied by a banquet hall company. The Neoclassical temple was designed by architect William Q. Bendus for the Aurora Masonic Alliance.

At one point, the city awarded a $300,000 federal community development block grant to an individual to help purchase the building. He operated a banquet and catering facility in part of it until November 2008, when the city shut the facility down for code violations.

After years of warnings, inspectors found potentially hazardous shifting on the outside concrete.

Check back for updates. Megan Jones is the police and fire reporter for the Aurora Beacon-News. [email protected] [email protected] ___ (c)2019 the Chicago Tribune

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