Congregation mourns Arlington Heights couple who died in fire in their home

Every Friday, Lew Smith talked to his rabbi and sung a song he learned from his mother as a boy.

"Shabbat Shalom," it goes, a common Jewish greeting as the weekend begins.

Those phone calls occurred for much of the last year, while Lew was at his Arlington Heights home caring for his wife, Joan, and as services at Congregation Beth Judea have been held virtually.

"It made him laugh and it made him smile, and it became very important for us to have the Shabbat song," said Rabbi Morris Zimbalist, who made the weekly calls to check in on the Smiths. "I will miss that terribly. I always looked forward to that."

Zimbalist and members of the Long Grove synagogue remembered their good friends as they coped with the news that the couple died in a fire Thursday in their Arlington Heights home.

The fire was reported by a neighbor on the 1900 block of Spruce Terrace who called 911 at 8:16 a.m., saying flames and smoke could be seen coming from the Smiths' single-family home, authorities said.

First responding police officers were unable to enter the house due to the heavy smoke and fire, mainly coming from the back of the house. The first firefighters on the scene extended hose lines into the house before they could begin a search, Fire Department Division Chief Dave Roberts said.

When they went inside, they were met with intense heat and flames on the midlevel near the kitchen of the split-level house, Roberts said.

Once they got it under control, they were able to find the two victims on the top floor. Lew, age 75, was in a hallway. Joan, 72, was in a bedroom, Roberts said.

They were taken to Northwest Community Hospital and pronounced dead by the emergency room staff soon afterward, officials said.

Firefighters brought the fire under control by 8:44 a.m., officials said. No one else was in the house, and no firefighters were injured battling the blaze.

Roberts said the smoke detectors were going off as the first firefighting crews arrived.

Preliminary evidence suggests the fire started in the kitchen, but the origin and cause remain under investigation by the fire department, police forensic technicians and Office of the State Fire Marshal.

Zimbalist, who is now helping plan the couple's funeral, said he was devastated by the news.

The Smiths, married for the past 34 years, were active members of the congregation for nearly two decades. Lew served on the ritual committee, where he opined on the best ways to hold Shabbat and high holiday services.

"He would openly share his opinions with me very candidly and passionately. To me, that showed a deep level of trust and friendship that we shared," Zimbalist said. "Lew was passionate about politics - both national and synagogue. I always enjoyed those conversations with him."

Joan sang in the choir until her health declined in recent years.

"Lew was completely devoted to Joan and wanted to do everything he could to help her," Zimbalist said.

Some two dozen firefighters responded to the fire, including from Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Mount Prospect and Palatine. The residential block just north of Palatine Road and east of Arlington Heights Road was closed off amid the large response from area fire departments.

The street was flooded with water when a main burst due to pressure from fire hydrants, and sidewalks covered with water had turned to ice.

It marks the third deadly residential fire in the Northwest suburbs in a little more than a week.

A Des Plaines mother and four daughters 6 years old and younger died Jan. 27 in an apartment fire blamed on a space heater.

And an Inverness couple were found dead Sunday after one of them set fire to their home, authorities said. The husband died from smoke inhalation and his wife from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police reported.

• Daily Herald staff photographer John Starks contributed to this report.