Two people injured, three pets killed in Island Lake fire

A resident and a firefighter were injured, and a dog and two cats died in an early morning fire in Island Lake Friday, authorities said.

Firefighters were called to the structure fire in the 3600 block of Linden Drive at 2:02 a.m., authorities said.

Heavy fire was visible from an attached garage of the two-story townhouse, officials said. The homeowner made the initial 911 call and was the only resident home at the time, authorities said.

The resident was taken to the hospital with nonlife-threatening burns, officials said. His condition remains unknown.

One Wauconda Fire Protection District firefighter was sent to the hospital for a medical condition that was nonlife-threatening, authorities said. He has since been treated and released.

The fire was contained to the townhouse. The estimated dollar loss is around $200,000, officials said.

By late Friday morning, the garage and some windows of the house had been boarded up, but the air in the neighborhood still smelled like smoke. Chairs and other property that had been charred by the fire were in a pile outside the house.

Next-door neighbor Luboslav Jurasek said police ringing his bell and banging on his front door woke him and his wife and got them out of their house safely.

"I just grabbed my dog and clothes and ran away," he said.

Jurasek said his townhouse unit was damaged by water and smoke.

Battalion chief Mark Dierker said the cause of the fire is under investigation by the Wauconda Fire Protection District.

Firefighters from Nunda Rural, Fox River Grove, Crystal Lake, Marengo, Grayslake, Barrington-Countryside, McHenry, Countryside Fire Protection District, Cary, Lake Zurich, Round Lake, Wonder Lake and Lake Villa assisted at the scene.