Firefighter injured in vacant house fire in Algonquin

A firefighter suffered injuries while more than a dozen fire departments battled a vacant house fire for alost four hours Wednesday night in Algonquin, officials report.

The Algonquin-Lake in the Hills Fire Protection District responded to a call at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday to the 400 block of Nokomis Trail in Algonquin for a reported structure fire. First responders arrived within three minutes to a vacant two-story, single-family home “fully involved” in flames, according to an Algonquin-Lake in the Hills Fire Protection District news release.

Crews upgraded the call to a box alarm for mutual aid because the remote area that did not have fire hydrants. Firefighters attacked the fire from the outside and water was shuttled in with the assistance of more than a dozen neighboring fire protection districts, according to the release. The fire was declared fully out almost four hours later, and crews remained at the scene until 11:30 p.m., investigating the fire and searching for hot spots.

One firefighter was injured and taken to Northwestern Medicine Huntley Hospital and was later released, according to the release.

No civilian injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is undetermined and a damage estimate currently is not available, according to the release. The fire is under investigation by the Algonquin-Lake in the Hills Fire Protection District, the Kane County Sheriff’s Office and the Illinois State Fire Marshal, Fire Chief John Knebl said

The fire protection districts that aided on the scene include Cary, Carpentersville, Huntley, Rutland-Dundee, Elgin, Fox River Grove, East Dundee, Crystal Lake, West Dundee, McHenry, Lake Zurich, Inverness, Nunda, Hampshire, Woodstock, along with the Algonquin Police Department, Kane County Sheriff’s Office and the Salvation Army Canteen.