GENEVA, IL — A multi-family house in the 300 block of North Fifth Street caught fire around 8:13 p.m. Monday, according to the Geneva Fire Department.

Officials said the preliminary cause of the fire was electrical, possibly originating from a portable dehumidifier.

Fire crews responded to the two-story house, subdivided into two apartments, after the second-floor tenants saw smoking coming from the common basement and called 911, officials said.

It took crews about 15 minutes to extinguish the small fire. Damage was limited to the basement storage area, while the remainder of the building suffered minor smoke damage, according to the fire department.

At the time, the first-floor apartment was vacant, and all of the tenants on the second floor evacuated the building before crews arrived, officials said.

While Geneva crews — with the help of Geneva police and firefighters from Elburn, St. Charles and Batavia — put out the fire, the West Chicago and Fermilab fire departments filled in the Geneva fire stations to respond to other calls.

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