Off-duty firefighters answer call

"Lucky" may not be the first word that comes to mind when a house is destroyed by fire, but a Round Lake Beach family were just that after three off-duty firefighters in the area responded to a fire at their house early Saturday.

Lincolnshire-Riverwoods Fire Protection District Lt. Ron Echtenacher Sr. spotted the fire around 7:20 a.m. at 2074 Millstone Drive while coming to pick up his son, Countryside Fire Protection District firefighter paramedic Ron Echtenacher Jr., a few houses down.

"It was a funny set of circumstances," Ron Echtenacher Jr. said, "My wife went to work with my keys, so I called my dad to pick me up."

Ron Echtenacher Sr. saw the flames and smoke, called 911 and told his son, "We gotta go," and they rushed to the scene.

The Echtenachers ran into the back of the house, which had flames blowing out of the front, and escorted some family members to safety.

"They were screaming for their daughter. We asked them where she was and they said she should be upstairs sleeping," he said.

The Echtenachers went into the house to the second floor to try to find the woman until the heat and flames drove them away.

Meanwhile, an off-duty Grayslake firefighter in the area also came to the scene to assist.

The Greater Round Lake Fire Protection District firefighters got to the scene just three minutes after the call. They were able to douse the flames to make the search for the woman possible, Grayslake Fire Captain Jon Cokefair said.

Round Lake firefighters found the woman unresponsive in the basement and rescued her from the fire. The unidentified woman was treated for smoke inhalation at the hospital and later released, Cokefair said.

"It was a good day for the fire departments up here," Cokefair said.

The cause of the fire is still undetermined, but fire officials hope to get some answers by Monday. The fire caused $300,000 in damage to the home and two vehicles in the driveway and left the house completely uninhabitable, Cokefair said.

"It's just a weird set of circumstances how we ended up there, everything happens for a reason I guess," Echtenacher said. "Had my wife not taken my keys, I would have left 20 minutes earlier."

"They were in the right place at right time," Cokefair said of the off-duty firefighters.

The American Red Cross was on the scene helping the displaced residents find temporary housing.

Fox Lake, Lake Villa and Gurnee fire departments assisted Round Lake and Grayslake at the scene of the blaze. Lake Villa Rescue and Wauconda departments assisted at the station.