Two injured in late-night South Elgin house fire

Two people were injured in a late-night house fire Monday in South Elgin.

South Elgin and Countryside Fire Protection District officials said they were dispatched to the 400 block of South Collins Street at about 10:45 p.m. Monday and found heavy fire showing from a front window of the single-family home.

Two residents had been able to escape the blaze, but a third person, whom fire officials described as a bedridden woman in her 70s, was trapped inside the house and the room that was on fire.

Firefighters poured water into the room to suppress the fire and cool the victim while other firefighters worked to cut a hole in the wall around the window that would allow them to extract the woman. Firefighters eventually were able to move the woman out of the room and she was transported to St. Joseph's Hospital in Elgin, where she is being treated for burns and smoke inhalation.

One of the other residents was also eventually transported to the hospital for smoke inhalation, fire officials said. Both residents remain hospitalized.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation. The blaze left the home uninhabitable.

Nine neighboring fire departments assisted South Elgin and Countryside firefighters.