St. Charles Township house fire claims family cat

A St. Charles Township house near the big bend in the Fox River was rendered uninhabitable by a fire Tuesday morning.

No one was injured in the blaze, but the family's cat died, Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District officials said.

Fire Chief John Nixon said the 9-1-1 call came in around 11:52 a.m., and when they arrived on the scene soon after they found heavy fire coming from an upstairs bedroom window at the home, on the 35W700 block of W. Rose Avenue.

Nixon said when the fire was discovered two adults and two children were in the house, but they exited safely. He said fire crews didn't know the family had left the home, so firefighters entered to fight the fire at its source, which appears to have been the upstairs bedroom, and to search the home.

Nixon said the fire was strong enough that it burned a hole in the bedroom floor, but it didn't make its way to the roof. He said they extinguished the fire in around 35 minutes but remained on the scene for about two hours. He said the house suffered around $80,000 worth of damage and that it is uninhabitable.

"I'm happy that there were no injuries," Nixon said. "I'm sorry the people had to suffer a loss."

The Kane County Fire Investigations Task Force is working on the case to determine how the fire began, Nixon said.