Body recovered from fire-ravaged Hawthorn Woods home

Firefighters recovered a body one day after a fire Saturday engulfed and destroyed a home in Hawthorn Woods, authorities said.

Lake Zurich Fire Department Chief David Pilgard said the body was found in the debris of the home Sunday as firefighters performed recovery operations.

Fire officials are working with the Lake County Coroner’s office to identify the deceased, he added.

Firefighters called to the home in the 0-100 block of Rosewood Drive at 3:10 p.m. Saturday arrived to find a heavily involved fire in the two-story, wood-frame residence, authorities said.

Pilgard said one member of the family that resided there could not be located after the fire was extinguished several hours later.

The deceased may have been the only member of the household present when the fire occurred, he said.

“The other family members are accounted for,” Pilgard added.

The fire raged for several hours before firefighters had it under control. Efforts were complicated by an electric vehicle in the garage that caught fire. However, Pilgard said, that does not necessarily point to the vehicle as the cause of the fire.

Due to the lack of municipal water and fire hydrants on the street, the fire department called for mutual aid, escalating the fire to three alarms. A tender truck responded to bring water to the area.

“We had to pump that water up to the scene, where we had multiple hand lines and a ladder truck flowing water on the fire to extinguish it,” Pilgard said.

Portable generators with lights also had to be brought to the scene, as were pumps to get water out of the basement, he added.

The home is a total loss, Pilgard said. No firefighters were injured while fighting the blaze.

Investigators remained on the scene Sunday continuing to search for a cause of the blaze.