Fire leaves two Vernon Hills townhouses 'uninhabitable'

A basement fire damaged two townhouses Sunday evening on the 800 block of Faulkner Place in Vernon Hills, authorities said.

No one was injured, said Battalion Chief Edward Heinz, but both units were deemed uninhabitable. Damages are estimated at $175,000, authorities said.

Heinz said investigators are on the scene Monday to determine the cause of the blaze. The fire does not seem suspicious in nature, he said.

Firefighters from the Countryside Fire Protection District got the call about 8:30 p.m. Sunday. They found smoke on all floors of a two-story townhouse, with heat and heavy smoke pouring out from the basement.

The heat and smoke forced firefighters out of the basement. Crews had to cut holes in the first-level flooring and pump in high expansion foam to extinguish the blaze.

Fire also got into a common wall and then the neighboring unit, firefighters said.

Countryside was assisted by firefighters from Libertyville, Mundelein, Lincolnshire, Knollwood, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Grayslake, Wauconda, Gurnee, Lake Zurich, Highwood, Deerfield, Lake Villa, Long Grove, Buffalo Grove and Palatine Rural, plus the Vernon Hills police and the MESS canteen.