Fire officials are still investigating the cause of a swamp fire that burned over 300 to 400 acres of land in unincorporated Lake County near Antioch Monday.
Antioch Fire Department Deputy Chief Ryan Keefe said firefighters were called to the scene of Dolphin Harbor in the 26000 block of West Oak Avenue at 12:42 p.m. Monday for a working swamp fire.
He said the smoke plume from the fire was visible as firefighters headed to Dolphin Harbor.
“Thankfully, the location of the fire was on a peninsula, so there was water on three sides to help sort of stop it from spreading,” Keefe said.
Like many locations throughout the Chain O’ Lakes area, Keefe said Dolphin Harbor has temporary mobile homes where people camp out when boating on the Chain.
Keefe said firefighters stopped the fire from spreading to the temporary harbor structures, but said some structures received minor heat-related damage, like melted siding.
Keefe said a Mutual Aid Box Alarm was called to bring in water and firefighters from Fox Lake, Lake Villa, Grayslake, Newport Township, Spring Grove, Round Lake, and Salem, Wisconsin.
No injuries were reported to either residents or firefighters, Keefe said.
Dozens of people from as far away as Zion took to the Lake & McHenry County Facebook page, claiming they could see the smoke rising from the blaze.
Keefe said the fire was completely extinguished and firefighters left the scene at about 3:30 p.m. after putting water on other hot spots.
He said the fire remains under investigation by the Antioch, Newport, Lake Villa, and Round Lake fire departments.