Child hospitalized with burn injuries after boat fire near Fox Lake

A child was hospitalized with burn injuries Sunday after a boat became engulfed in flames near Fox Lake, authorities said.

The child was among a family of four out for a ride in Nippersink Lake when the small boat caught fire before 3 p.m. Sunday, said Lt. Jake Geist of the Fox Lake Fire Protection District.

The two adults and two children jumped out of the boat and made it safely back to shore near the Route 12 bridge. The child taken to the hospital had non life-threatening injuries; the other three family members were treated and released at the scene, Geist said.

After the family got out of the boat, it drifted under the bridge and into the channel leading to Pistakee Lake.

A fire department boat extinguished the fire, and the vessel sank as it took on water. But the channel is only about 3 feet deep there; crews later recovered it and dragged the charred wreckage to a nearby boat launch.

The Lake County Sheriff’s marine unit contacted a tow company to get it out of the water.

Geist said the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

1 of 4