City to Condemn More Than 100 Fireplaces

The City of Wheaton will condemn more than 100 fireplaces in the Briarcliffe Knolls condos after the defective equipment caused two fires there. 

According to an engineering report conducted after the fires in the 800 block of Farnham Lane and the 1400 block of Johnstown Court, the fireplaces in the Knolls condos were installed in violation of city code.

The fire in the occurred in March 2011. According to a release from the Wheaton Fire Department, the fire started in the attic and spread through the building’s floors and walls. The fire in the  occurred in November 2010. The two-story building sustained smoke and water damage on the first and second floors, and fire damage in the attic, according to a press release from the Wheaton Fire Department. No one was injured.

Assistant City Manager Mike Dzugan said the city will send official condemnation notices to homeowners within the next couple of weeks.

In August, Joe Kreidl, director of building and code enforcement for the City of Wheaton sent a notification letter to the Briarcliffe Knolls homeowners association and management company that prohibited use of all fireplaces in the 155-unit condo association, Briarcliffe Knolls and Briarcliffe Lakes, a 336-unit condo association that was built by the same developer and is owned by the same management company.

Kreidl also requested a list of every unit in the Knolls and Lakes homes that contain a fireplace. Jeff Sand, a board member for the Briarcliffe Knolls homeowner's association, said 135 units in the Knolls homes still have the original fireplaces.

According to Kreidl's letter, a required vent in lieu of a chimney was not included in the installation of the fireplaces installed more than 30 years ago. Some homeowners have had their fireplaces converted to gas or gas log sets since the original installation, Kreidl wrote, but there is no information available about the updates.

The city will also send a letter to the homeowner’s association and management company, asking for a document that details options for rectifying the violations, which will require inspection by an engineer or architect of every fireplace, Dzugan said.

Dzugan and Kreidl met with homeowners Thursday to answer their questions about the notices.

Homeowners expressed confusion about whether they’d have to replace or cap off the fireplaces, Dzugan said. Sand said that while he’d be willing to accept that the fireplaces violate code, he didn’t like that the city is going to condemn them without first inspecting them.

While the city doesn’t know how many fireplaces violate city code and to what extent, the engineering report indicated enough cause for concern.

“We don’t know that until we get options drawn by an engineer or an architect—and (then) we’ll evaluate them to determine whether they meet city code,” Dzugan said.

“There were two fires there … that’s why we felt we had enough evidence to suggested they all need to be condemned. It’s an important issue.”

Sand said the majority of the Knolls residents are retirees and young people who can’t afford to hire professional engineers or architects on their own.

“I would like to see the city attempting to work with us and understand that retirees and young people can’t hire professional engineers or architects on their own—they need to accept that we’re in over our head and don’t know how to comply with them,” he said.

Dzugan told the residents Thursday that the city will try to come up with a reasonable time period for residents to comply, and that there may be multiple options for repair with multiple cost levels available to rectify the situation.

“As it stands now it’s just an order indicating that that piece of equipment cannot be used,” he said.

The city has not determined whether the fireplaces in Briarcliffe Lakes condos will be condemned, Dzugan said.

Sand said the board will select one fireplace installation vendor and encourage homeowners to use them to lower the cost.