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Neighbors mourn woman killed in Barrington-area fire

Isabel Chang last visited her next-door neighbor, Carole Schnable, on Christmas Eve, Schnable's birthday, a time she spent celebrating another milestone: her grandson's graduation from Roosevelt University with honors.

“She really seemed uplifted,” Chang said. “I was very happy for her. That really was my last memory with her, and I was glad to see that she was coming out of her grieving of her husband.”

Schnable's husband, Ken, her high school sweetheart, had died almost two years ago. “She really missed him after he passed away,” Chang said. “They had enjoyed a long life together.”

They spent much of that life in a well-kept home in a quiet neighborhood on the 21000 block of North 21st Street near Barrington, where an overnight fire reduced the raised ranch-style house to a pile of charred rubble. The elderly woman's body was found in an upstairs bedroom, Lake County sheriff's police said. An official source confirmed her name. She was 81, her son said.

There are no fire hydrants in the unincorporated neighborhood north of Northwest Highway west of Rt. 59, residents said. The Schnables moved into the home in the early 1970s.

Her son, Kurt Schnable, took his mom, a former executive secretary in the construction industry, out to lunch Friday. His parents “lived to see their grandson come to his potential,” he said. After graduating in computer science and math, Kirk Schnable now works for an Internet company.

Among neighbors, the Schnables were known for keeping a manicured home.

“They had the best designed and decorated yard in the neighborhood,” said Ken Whigham, who lives down the block. “They always had a real knack for making things look good.”

Sirens woke Whigham up early Saturday morning. Another neighbor had called 911 about 1:15 a.m. Saturday to report a fire in the home. Sheriff's deputies found the residence engulfed in flames.

“The house is gone,” Whigham said. “There's a chimney now, and that's it.”

Chang's husband, who was just going to bed, woke her up, and the couple saw intense flames and plumes of smoke shooting out of the home.

The neighbors, both in their 80s, had looked after each other. And Schnable made sure to compliment Chang's husband on a job well done making repairs around the house.

“We will miss her,” she said.

An autopsy will be done Monday morning. The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Lake County Sheriff's Criminal Investigations Division, the Barrington Countryside Fire Protection District and Illinois State Fire Marshall's Office.

  Charred remains of a home and a damaged car at the scene of a fatal fire in the 2100 block of North 21st Street in unincorporated Barrington Saturday morning. Joe Lewnard/jlewnard@dailyherald.com
  Charred remains of a home at the scene of a fatal fire in the 2100 block of North 21st Street in unincorporated Barrington Saturday morning. Joe Lewnard/jlewnard@dailyherald.com
  Charred remains of a home and a damaged car at the scene of a fatal fire in the 2100 block of North 21st Street in unincorporated Barrington Saturday morning. Joe Lewnard/jlewnard@dailyherald.com
  Charred remains of a home at the scene of a fatal fire in the 2100 block of North 21st Street in unincorporated Barrington Saturday morning. Joe Lewnard/jlewnard@dailyherald.com
  Charred remains of a home at the scene of a fatal fire in the 2100 block of North 21st Street in incorporated Barrington Saturday morning. Joe Lewnard/jlewnard@dailyherald.com
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