Crystal Lake sober-living home hopes to relocate after fire destroyed house downtown

Hours after a devastating fire in Crystal Lake, an excavator was clearing the charred remains of the Last Chance House. The sober-living facility was completely destroyed in a fire Tuesday night that took more than an hour to extinguish, Crystal Lake Fire Rescue Department officials said.

This was the home for seven men who are going through the difficult process of alcoholism recovery. Now they will rely on other nearby sober-living facilities, but the Last Chance House program’s future is more uncertain.

Last Chance House is a residential facility at the corner of Route 176 and Second Street that has helped about 1,000 men with alcoholism recover to sobriety since 2006, President John Danley said. Given the ripple effect that recovery has, he said, he thinks the nonprofit has helped closer to 15,000 people in total.

“How many families got their husbands back, their fathers back, their brothers back through recovery?” he said. “It heals the whole family.”

Seven residents and an in-house manager were in the house when the fire broke out, Danley said. One resident went to the bathroom and noticed a fire outside the home that quickly spread inside.

“They literally got out within 30 seconds because then the entire inside was engulfed,” Danley said.

The Crystal Lake Fire Rescue Department responded to a call at 11:50 p.m. Tuesday at the sober home at 244 Second St. First responders arrived at the scene within three minutes to “heavy fire conditions” throughout the two-story home, according to a news release from the department.

The blaze is under investigation.

The nonprofit is in dire need of monetary donations to rebuild the program and find a replacement home, Danley said. People can donate through the organization’s website at lastchancehouse.org.

“We’re just going to take it one step at a time here, and we’ll see what tomorrow brings,” he said. “The support that we’ve got and the support that we’re going to get means the world to us.”

Board of Directors member Larry Baum said he is “confident” Last Chance House will be able bounce back and find another home in the area.

Another organization, New Directions Addiction Recovery Service, is helping the nonprofit by moving its residents to its sober-living homes, Executive Director Bobby Gattone said. All seven residents were able to find places at other sober-living homes within 12 hours of the fire, Baum said.

“The fellas seem to be doing really well,” Baum said. “They’re all in great spirits.”

New Directions also provided its Crystal Lake sober bar, The Other Side, as a space for the displaced residents to recoup and receive free meals after the fire, he said.

In the meantime, New Directions plans to continue supporting Last Chance House and to create more sober-living homes.

The nonprofit organization has opened five sober home in Crystal Lake and Woodstock since its conception about 12 years ago. Another one will be breaking ground soon in Woodstock, Gattone said.

Before those homes were created, the waiting list would be as high as 65 people looking for sober housing.

“If you’re not in some kind of recovery program for at least six month, relapse rates are staggeringly high,” he said.

The nonprofit has received resident backlash in previous years when developing these facilities. But once in the neighborhood, residents don’t see it as “that big of a deal,” New Directions President Chris Reed told the Northwest Herald in 2019.

About 10% of the general population is going through some form of addiction recovery from alcohol or substances, Gattone said.

“It’s more prevalent than what people think,” he said. “It’s a constant need, and it’s not something we’re going to fix, per se. I think we just need to get better equipped at helping people.”