Sugar Grove house fire displaces two families

Two Sugar Grove families are displaced as the result of a Friday afternoon kitchen fire in a suburban townhouse.

Deputy Fire Chief Dave Adler said crews arrived at 3:15 p.m. to 141 Meadows Drive to find smoke and flames coming out of all of the first-floor doors and windows. Fueling the fire, he said, were 25 mph wind gusts blowing into the house.

No one was home during the fire but a cat was rescued during a search of the home after the fire was extinguished.

Adler said about $100,000 in damage was done inside the unit where the fire started and the adjacent unit had significant smoke damage, prohibiting those residents from staying there also.

Adler said the Red Cross provided both families with lodging arrangements for a few nights and neighbors created a phone tree to round up clothes and toiletries for the families.

If there could be an upside to a tragedy, Adler said his firefighters got their first live experience with new technology that they've practiced on for months.

Despite the flames and winds, Adler said the new system, which combines compressed air and foam, had the flames extinguished within five minutes.

"The air injected into the water hose increases the surface area of the water and the foam helps the water stick to the contents that are burning," he said. "It was very impressive. Even the neighbors standing around were impressed with how quickly the flames went down."

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.