After a large fire severely damaged five homes Tuesday night in Chicago Heights — three of which were unoccupied — homeowners and their families gathered Wednesday morning in the 1500 block of Lowe Avenue to assess the damage.

Wrapped in a Red Cross blanket, Alicia Campbell stared at the ruins of her home, a place she cherished for 40 years.

“It’s gut-wrenching,” said her son, James Campbell. “Everything she worked hard for. Forty years, it’s all going up in flames.”

Alicia Campbell recalled the frantic call she received from her granddaughter, Tatiana Campbell, 29, who was in a panic about a nearby fire.

“She called me and said, ‘Grandma, there’s a fire, it’s out of control,’” she said.

“She ain’t used to nothing like that, neither am I for that matter,” Campbell said. “But I say, don’t worry Tatiana, they’re doing their job.”

The next call from Tatiana came after the flames had spread to Alicia Campbell’s home.

“By then she was hysterical because the firefighters had banged on the window to get her out,” she said.

The Chicago Heights Fire Department responded just after 11 p.m. Tuesday to calls.

Before crews could put out the blaze, assistant fire Chief Wendell Thomas said the fire was able to spread to neighboring homes.

“There was fire in the rear of the original structure, and that fire radiated through the exposure to the house to the north, and that one caught as well,” Thomas told reporters Tuesday.

Residents believe the flames originated in an abandoned home undergoing repairs and quickly spread to a neighboring house before crossing the street and igniting three others.

From the damage, it appears the two vacant homes and one occupied residence were gutted down to their foundations, while Alicia Campbell’s house and another unoccupied home sustained severe damage.

Alicia Campbell’s home was one of the two occupied houses. Before the fire was contained, there was significant damage to her roof and windows, and the back of the house was completely gutted.

Officials said nine people were evacuated from the homes, and no injuries were reported.

But Campbell said she is devastated at the damage, which she believes could have been avoided.

Thomas said the blaze was able to spread to all five homes partly because crews struggled to access water supplies due to ongoing construction.

“It’s a very unfortunate thing, we understand that,” Thomas said. “We were actively trying to find fire hydrants that were working, and eventually we did.

There was a delay in that. Once we were able to get those hydrants up, we were able to put water on the fire.”

Alicia Campbell wants answers about the lack of working fire hydrants.

“That’s the big deal when the firefighter tells you we ain’t got enough water!” she said. “Because they were using water down there, but they all standing in the street watching us burn.”

James Campbell said it took crews around 10 minutes to locate a functioning fire hydrant to combat the flames.

In that time, the fire, which began across the street from his mother’s home, spread to engulf two neighboring houses before reaching hers.

“These men had to carry the hoses three or four blocks over, “ he said.

Thomas could not confirm whether the second fire was related to the original blaze, but James suspects high winds spread the flames across the street, igniting older pine trees in front of the homes.

“At this time, anything would be speculation,” Thomas said Tuesday.

Alicia Campbell said she received financial assistance from the Red Cross and hopes to repair the damage to her home.

“There’s hope,” she said, while an alarm on her phone rang, signaling her noon prayers. “12 o’clock is prayer time.”

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, officials said.

smoilanen@chicagotribune.com