Fire starts in Lake Forest basement

Two elderly people were helped away from their Lake Forest home by emergency responders after a fire started in the basement Thursday morning, fire officials said.

Lake Forest firefighters were called at 9:39 a.m. to the two-story home on the 0-100 block of West North Avenue and arrived to find smoke coming from both floors of the home, Lt. Stephen Grost said.

Police helped the homeowners get to a neighbor's house, while firefighters worked for about 30 minutes to extinguish the blaze.

"Some workers at the house called the fire in," Grost said. "They were working on the outside of the home. They'll have more details with that part of it later."

The elderly man was examined at the scene, but nobody was injured in the blaze. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Damage is estimated at $150,000.

Several departments assisted: Lake Bluff, Knollwood, Libertyville, North Chicago, Countryside, Lincolnshire, Deerfield, and Long Grove.