Carelessness or Arson? The fire on Greenview and Greenleaf

7054 North Greenview, 3N. This is where ground zero happened.
Inside the actual apartment on the fire. There is nothing left.

(Rogers Park) - On March 10, 2012, around 9:30 p.m., an extra alarm fire blaze broke out at Greenleaf and Greeview. It pretty much rocked the neighborhood.

Day's later questions still remain as to what happened.

The fire occurred in a condo association building managed by Westward Property Management. There are 18 or 19 units, depending on the building website information you look at.

The building has addresses on both Greenview and Greenleaf.

7042, 7044, 7052, 7054 North Greenview.

1502 and 1504 West Greenleaf.

It was built in 1918.

Mailbox indicates no one seems to live
at 7054 North Greenview, 3N

The unit in question, 7054 North Greenview, 3N. This unit has no name on the buzzer at the time of the fire. If this was a condo, who was living there? Public records say it is owned by Tariq Usman.

I asked - and asked. No one wants to say if he lives there.

In fact, today, when I was asking questions, the boss-man for Belfor Property Restoration had no comment; and told his workers not to say anything to me, either. Belfor is the company with all the trucks lining the building, doing the insured repair construction work.

Also, a neighbor who lives behind the property, who didn't want to be identified, told me he allegedly saw someone on the third floor of the 7054 North Greenview 3N, on the back porch of the time of the fire.

The unknown person was alleged to be using some sort of liquid to ignite a fire, according to the person.

I asked the source if it was a cooking grill he saw the person squirting flammable liquid on. The source didn't know. Reason I asked is, wood decks and cooking grills don't mix. Our condo association doesn't allow grills on our wood decks.

That would be a violation of condo rules.

I went around and asked condo owners on scene about this. No one would talk.

When I asked about the new wood porch boards, the one person who owned a condo in the 18 or 19 unit property said, "it was from a previous project."


I couldn't locate any public building project permits with this property. Nor did I see any valid city of Chicago permits publicly displayed for work to be done.

Wooden porch beams are now covered up.

When I  looked at the boards I took photographs of the day after the fire, they were covered up and hidden away today.  (See photo) -->

Something is fishy here - and no one wants to talk.

Time will tell, as 'Bomb and Arson' has the final say if it was an accident or arson.

BLOGNOTES: Still, someone should check for permits to build a back porch at 1502/04 West Greenleaf. This doesn't look up to code to me. It looks like another accident waiting to happen.

Can someone say fire hazard? 
Doors to nowhere.
Second and third floor back porch doors
on the 1502/04 West Greenleaf side,
boarded up from the outside
with no porch or stairs.