
A resident was injured after an extra-alarm fire left a barn destroyed and a house uninhabitable, causing Route 173 to be shut down, near Antioch Sunday morning.
The Antioch Fire Department responded around 7:59 a.m. Sunday to the 25900 block of Route 173 in unincorporated Antioch for a report of a structure fire.
Antioch Fire Department Battalion Chief Joseph DuShane said fire crews arrived to find a working fire.
A large barn, which was attached to a single-story residence, was well involved in flames.
There were reports of three people still inside the residence, DuShane said.
Fire crews made entry into the home but then exited and went into a defensive attack due to the rapidly changing fire conditions.
DuShane said no occupants were found inside. One resident suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to the hospital.
A working still alarm upgrade was requested for additional fire crews to respond.
Another request was then made to the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System (MABAS) to the second alarm level for even more fire departments from Illinois and Wisconsin to respond due to the extent of fire, DuShane said.
The Lake Villa, Fox Lake, Round Lake, Newport, Mundelein, Waukegan, Winthrop Harbor, Gurnee, Grayslake, Wauconda, Spring Grove, McHenry, Bristol, Salem, Kansasville and Pleasant Prairie fire departments assisted at the scene or covered Antioch fire stations.
Firefighters worked for nearly five hours to extinguish the fire and conduct overhaul operations — extinguishing hidden fires.
DuShane said an excavator was called to help with the extensive overhaul.
The house was deemed uninhabitable and a damage estimate was not immediately available.
Police shut down Route 173 in front of the property during the incident.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Antioch Fire Department.