By JENN WIANT – Northwest Herald

HARVARD – Tenants of Cunat Inc. apartments can do anything they like in their units, as long as it is legal and does not affect other tenants, said Christopher Zock, Cunat’s vice president of operations.

But when an apartment building goes up in flames as a result of careless smoking, as residents witnessed earlier this month at the Cunat-owned Northfield Court Apartments in Harvard, the question of what tenants should be allowed to do in their own homes becomes less clear-cut.

“With things like pets and smoking, and even the way that people use their kitchens, we attempt to allow people to operate as if it was their own home, and we get involved when it begins to have an impact on their neighbors,” Zock said. “When an event like [the June 3 fire] happens, there’s obviously a massive impact. … It definitely gives us cause to do research.”

The Northfield Court apartment fire was the second major apartment fire in McHenry County since 2007 that was caused by a cigarette. On May 29, 2007, more than 40 people lost their homes when an apartment building at 720 St. Johns Road in Woodstock burned down after a tenant dropped a lit cigarette and then fell asleep, fire officials said.

And just last month, an elderly woman was killed in a fire at 2311 Paulson Road near Harvard that also is believed to be smoking-related, according to an investigation by the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office.

Would a ban be feasible?

Nationally, fires caused by smoking materials are the second most deadly type of home structure fire after heating equipment fires, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Between 2002 and 2005, 24 percent of civilian deaths each year in home structure fires occurred in fires caused by smoking materials.

The City Council in Belmont, Calif., passed an ordinance in October prohibiting smoking inside individual apartment units in multi-unit, multi-story residences. Smoking in apartments, condominiums and town houses that do not share any floors or ceilings with other units still is allowed, according to an NBC report.

Harvard Mayor Jay Nolan said city officials had not considered a similar ban, and he was not sure whether the city had the authority to pass an ordinance prohibiting smoking in apartment buildings.

Attorney Greg Barry of the firm Zukowski, Rogers, Flood & McArdle in Crystal Lake said the Smokefree Illinois Act was unclear about whether municipalities had the authority to regulate smoking in private homes.

And spokeswoman Melaney Arnold of the Illinois Department of Public Health said restrictions on smoking in private residences were not being considered at the state level.

Landlords take action

But some landlords are taking the initiative and making their own properties smoke-free.

Jenna Maicke, who handles operations and tenant complaints for Woodstock-based property management company Advantage Plus Inc., said making most of the company’s rental units smoke-free had not hurt business.

“If [tenants] smoke, they can do it outside, away from the building,” she said. “Most of the time, they don’t smoke.”

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