ROCHELLE — Quick action by a resident and local emergency personnel may have prevented a major fire on Friday afternoon on Rochelle’s south side.
Leslie Medina was outside her parents’ home while her children were playing on a trampoline shortly after noon on May 31 when she heard loud pops coming from a storage area above a detached garage at 227 S. 10th St.
“I heard what sounded like gun shots going off so I went up and opened the door and saw smoke,” she explained.

Medina said a local police squad car was coincidentally driving by at the time, so she flagged down the officer and the fire department was quickly summoned.
Smoke was billowing out when fire fighters arrived, but flames were quickly extinguished in the small kitchenette area in the building and it appears no one was injured and damage was limited.
“Most of the fire was contained to the top of a gas stove, they don’t know why but there was some burning material on top of the stove,” Rochelle Fire Lieutenant Jason Underwood said. “There was substantial damage to the kitchen area and the walls around it but the scond story is completely intact except for minor smoke damage.”
The official cause is still under investigation.