Man killed in Hoffman Estates fire overnight

A 92-year-old man died early Sunday morning after he was unable to escape a fire that swept through his single-story home in Hoffman Estates overnight.

Emmett Keating was pronounced dead after Hoffman Estates firefighters pulled him from a bedroom of his burning residence in the 700 block of Cumberland Street, authorities said today. Two others in the home when the fire started managed to get out and were treated at the scene.

They included Keating’s wife, Doris, neighbors said.

A firefighter suffered a minor ankle injury, officials said.

Firefighters were called to the home at 1:32 a.m. on a report of a structure fire. When they arrived, they found heavy fire and smoke conditions coming from the roof and rear of the ranch-style residence.

The two people who escaped the home alerted firefighters that one person remained inside, authorities said. Firefighters searched the home and found Keating in a bedroom. He was brought outside where attempts to resuscitate were initiated, authorities said.

Officials said firefighters quickly brought the fire under control. Damage is estimated at $375,000.

Mark Young, who was visiting a friend on a neighboring street, said he entered the house before firefighters arrived to try to save Keating.

“I took my shirt off and went in and crawled through their living room and tried to get in there and couldn’t make it,” Young said. “I got through the living room to the next threshold and I couldn’t see anything.

“By then, I had to take my first breath and when I did, I gagged real bad.”

Young was at the home late Sunday morning to see what had happened to the residents.

“I can’t believe he died,” he said. “He was an elderly man in a wheelchair. I feel like I could have saved him.

“The older lady, the lady that lives here, she was already out,” he added. “She was on her feet. She didn’t know what was happening. She was in shock.”

According to neighbors, the couple lived in the house for several decades and raised four children there.

“They were inseparable,” neighbor Pat Abraham said. “They always went places together.”

Abraham said Emmett Keating was infirm. She said his wife took care of him with the round-the-clock assistance of a caregiver.

“We waved at each other. We talked to each other. They used to have a little poodle and they used to take the poodle for a walk,” Abraham said. “They were very nice people.”

The cause of the blaze is under investigation by the Hoffman Estates Fire Department, Hoffman Estates police and the State Fire Marshal’s Office. The home was equipped with smoke detectors, but it is not yet known if they were working, officials said. The home was not equipped with sprinklers.

Hoffman Estates firefighters were assisted at the scene by crews from the Streamwood, Schaumburg and Palatine Rural fire departments.