Firefighters rescued two dogs after they found heavy flames coming from a garage and residence, which also damaged a second home, near Grayslake Saturday evening.
The Grayslake Fire Protection District and Lake County Sheriff’s Office responded around 10:13 p.m. Saturday to the 33000 block of North Sears Boulevard in unincorporated Grayslake for a report of a structure fire.
Grayslake Fire Protection District Battalion Chief Ian Mandigo said fire crews arrived to find heavy flames coming from the garage attached to the home, as well as the north exterior of the house.
A car was engulfed in flames inside the garage and a second vehicle in the driveway was also on fire.
Firefighters began extinguishing the fire from the outside and additional crews conducted a search of the residence, Mandigo said.
Fire crews found two dogs inside the home and rescued them. They were uninjured.
The incident was upgraded through the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System (MABAS) to the box alarm level to bring additional fire departments to the scene and to cover Grayslake fire stations.
Mandigo said firefighters conducted a coordinated attack on the fire from the inside as well as the outside to bring the fire under control.
An adjacent home sustained minor damage to its siding from the radiant heat.
The residents where the fire began were not home at the time of the fire, Mandigo said.
The residents were displaced from the residence as it was deemed uninhabitable. No civilians or firefighters were injured.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Grayslake Fire Protection District.
The Gurnee, Libertyville, Mundelein, Countryside, Beach Park, Round Lake, Fox Lake, Barrington-Countryside, Wauconda and Lake Zurich fire departments assisted at the scene.
The Waukegan, Antioch, Newport, Libertyville, Lake Bluff, North Chicago and Lake Zurich fire departments covered Grayslake fire stations during the incident.