A firefighter was transported to the hospital after a fire left a vacant home fully engulfed in flames near Algonquin and prompted the response of more than a dozen fire departments.
The Algonquin-Lake in the Hills Fire Protection District responded around 7:05 p.m. Wednesday to the 400 block of Nokomis Trail in unincorporated Algonquin for a report of a structure fire.
Fire crews arrived on the scene in three minutes and found a vacant two-story, single-family home fully engulfed in flames, fire officials said.
The home is located in a remote area without fire hydrants and water had to be hauled to the scene.
Fire officials said the incident was upgraded to a box alarm through the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System (MABAS) due to the heavy fire conditions and lack of water.
Firefighters worked to extinguish the fire from the outside and water was shuttled to the scene.
A firefighter was injured and transported by ambulance to Northwestern Medicine Hospital in Huntley, fire officials said. The firefighter has since been released.
It took almost four hours before the fire was declared out at 10:42 p.m.
Firefighters remained on the scene until 11:30 p.m. investigating the fire and searching for hidden fires.
The cause of the fire is undetermined so far and a damage estimate was not available, fire officials said.
Fire investigators returned to the fire scene Thursday to continue the investigation.
15 fire departments, along with the Algonquin Police Department, Kane County Sheriff’s Office and Salvation Army Canteen assisted.