A house fire on North Van Auken Street in Elmhurst is under investigation after the 68-year-old resident told officers the blaze started on his stove.

Firefighters responded about 9 a.m. Friday, Oct. 23, to 471 N. Van Auken St., according to Patch, which first reported the story. The man has been arrested multiple times in incidents involving neighbors, police said.

Elmhurst Police Chief Michael McLean told Patch that his department and the DuPage County Fire Investigation Task Force were looking into whether the fire was accidental or otherwise. No determination of cause had been announced as of Patch's Oct. 26 publication.

By Monday, Oct. 26, the home's windows were boarded up and a tarp covered a section of the roof. A white SUV sat in the driveway.

The fire added urgency to questions neighbors have raised for years about the man's behavior. As we reported Oct. 25, he was charged with disorderly conduct Oct. 19 after police said he was destroying a fence with a hammer about 4 a.m. Officers also cited him for trespassing.

That arrest was the latest in a string dating to at least October 2023, according to police reports. In April 2025, the man was charged with attempted aggravated assault, two counts of criminal damage to property and criminal trespass after police alleged he tried to batter a neighbor with a metal pipe. He was taken to DuPage County Jail.

A week before that April 2025 incident, officers charged him with illegal dumping after a neighbor alleged he threw steaks into her yard toward her dogs. In March 2025, police said he scratched the hood of a woman's car with broken glass in the 200 block of North York Street.

Former neighbor Diana Enders told Patch the police could do more.

"We are not shocked. This was bound to happen," Enders said.

She emailed McLean about her concerns. The chief responded that for about 15 months until September 2026, police received no 911 calls or incident reports at the man's address. McLean invited Enders to call him about steps the department, courts and mental health authorities have taken over the past couple of years.

McLean said privacy protections prevent the department from publicizing medical or mental health information. He said individuals must meet the legal standard of being "an articulable danger to themselves or others" to be taken into protective custody and involuntarily committed. Those who do not meet that standard must voluntarily agree to seek treatment, he said.

The investigation into the fire's cause remains open.