Winds hinder firefighters at Ingleside-area home fires

Heavy winds are being blamed for a fire damaging three houses on Long Lake in Ingleside on Thursday.

Fox Lake Deputy Chief Larry Van Hoorlebeck said the fire started in an RV parked outside of 35093 Milwaukee Avenue. It spread to the house, and the winds carried it east to a garage/apartment at 35101 Milwaukee.

A third building, a single-family home at 35081 Milwaukee, caught fire partially due to the wind but also because the RV was parked next to it, Hoorlebeck said.

Jake Meudt, the owner of the RV, the first house and the garage/apartment, was in the first house when the fire broke out, Hoorlebeck said.

He managed to get out of the house safely. No one was injured in the blaze.

Hoorlebeck said investigators from Lake County and the state fire marshal's office are trying to determine what sparked the blaze.

Firefighters received the call about the two-alarm blaze just after 10:30 a.m., Hoorlebeck said. Crews from Round Lake, Grayslake and Lake Villa were called in to help battle the fire.

The houses are directly across the street from Long Lake, from which water was pumped to help fight the fire.

The first house and RV were engulfed when crews arrived on the scene, and smoke already was coming out of the attic of the second house.

The first house was burned to the ground, Hoorlebeck said; the overall cost of damages was undetermined late Thursday.

Hoorlebeck said the second house sustained about $100,000 in damages, and the apartment/garage had about $180,000 in damages.

Neighbors stood outside in the bitter cold and wind, hoping crews would contain the fire before it spread down the block.

"It was amazing. By the time I went down, the house was completely engulfed in flames," neighbor Kelly Neuroth said. "I wanted to make sure no one was in it and it wasn't spreading to my house."