Families displaced after Lake in the Hills fire

Sonja Das had just put her infant daughter to bed and was reading the Bible to her 4-year-old daughter when her husband smelled smoke in their Lake in the Hills kitchen.

As the family gathered important documents and made preparations to leave the house, neighbor Scott Foote showed up on their doorstep.

"Scott banged on our door and said, 'Get out, the house is on fire,'" Das said.

The Sunday night blaze destroyed two townhouses on Polaris Drive in Lake in the Hills and damaged Das', displacing three families.

Residents also reported hearing an explosion, but investigators have not found evidence that one occurred, said Lt. Julie Didier of the Algonquin-Lake in the Hills Fire Protection District.

"We were not able to determine what they heard," Didier said.

The fire began at the empty two-story townhouse next to the Dases' home. Owner Christian Oswald said he was due to start renting it out this week.

A gas line at the house was damaged during the fire, causing natural gas to rise from the ground, which only intensified but didn't cause the fire, Didier said.

Once the second-floor windows burst from the heat of the fire, the flames spread to a third townhouse, authorities said.

Firefighters responded to the scene at 9:31 p.m., officials said, and saw Oswald's townhouse fully engulfed in flames. Crews from Barrington, Carpentersville, Crystal Lake, East Dundee, Huntley, Marengo and West Dundee assisted.

Thanks to Foote's and an off-duty Crystal Lake firefighter's assistance, homeowners were able to escape the buildings, officials said.

"That's what you are supposed to do when you see a fire - help get people out," Foote said.

Foote said he was heading past the townhouse at 9:30 p.m. when he saw the fire.

He said he jumped out of his car and ran to the townhouses to get people out, while his wife remained in the car and dialed 911.

"The garage door was open, and I saw flames running up the ceiling," Foote said. "So I ran next door and started banging on the door to get their attention."

He said after getting those people out, he ran to the third townhouse and banged on the rear door to help the Hettich family.

"They were trying to get out but were trying to save their cats," Foote said. "So, I helped get them out as the smoke was filling up the house."

Ron Hettich said the family saved two out of their four cats, Blanket and Jade.

Sadly, Jackie and Chloe both died in the blaze, Hettich said, fighting to stop from crying.

But all wasn't lost in the fire.

Neighbors and firefighters helped rescue portions of a Michael Jackson shrine that belongs to Hettich's 12-year-old daughter Sara and included T-shirts, DVDs, rare books, CDs and other trinkets.

She became a huge fan after the singer died last summer. She named her black and white cat after his youngest son, Blanket, and visited the Jackson house in Gary, Ind.

"She just became an expert on everything about him," Hettich said.

Firefighters and neighbors saved a few medallions, T-shirts and a bracelet from her collection.

As well, the fire didn't claim his daughter's life savings, which was between $600 and $700, Hettich said.

Because the fire gutted their townhouse, Hettich and his family will be staying in Elgin with his mother-in-law.

Foote said he was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation. Fire investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the blaze.

Authorities said the homeowners were remodeling the empty townhouse before the fire started, but they had left four hours before the fire, Didier confirmed.

Fire officials did not have a damage estimate available Monday evening.

The blaze was brought under control by 10:30 p.m., but a small fire kept burning by the meter until Nicor crews closed the line.

That particular fire was out by 12:30 a.m., authorities said.

The Das house sustained extensive smoke and water damage, and the family has made arrangements to stay in a hotel while insurance covers the repairs.

Firefighters told the family that the damage would have been a lot worse if there hadn't been a firewall between their home and the one where the first started, Sonja Das said.

"I was praying, I was like, 'God please, save the house,'" Das said. "I mean, it's a miracle."