Two people flown to St. Anthony’s hospital in Rockford after early morning apartment fire in DeKalb

DeKALB - Two people are facing life-threatening injuries after being air-lifted to Rockford following an apartment fire in the 1400 block of West Lincoln Highway early Friday morning.

DeKalb Fire Chief Jeff McMaster said fire investigators remain on the scene as of 11:30 a.m. where a fire gutted a first-level apartment in the High Meadows apartment complex on West Lincoln Highway. The condition of the two adults who lived there remains unknown, he said.

“It was zero visibility and very thick, dark, rancid smoke,” McMaster said.

Nearly 40 firefighters from seven regional agencies responded to the call of a structure fire around 4:21 a.m. Friday, McMaster said.

“When they arrived on scene they had heavy heavy smoke showing at the time,” McMaster said. “They had one victim outside with reports that there was still a victim on the inside. The police were able to locate the victim in the apartment through the outside windows, but because the smoke was so thick and rancid, nobody was able to get in.”

To rescue the second injured person trapped inside, McMaster said firefighters who were donned in their gear and air packs were able to remove the person from the burning apartment unit.

“They placed her in an ambulance and started giving her advanced life support,” he said. “We ended up transporting the two patients with separate ambulances to [Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital], but they’ve since been flown to St. Anthony’s in Rockford.”

No firefighters were injured in the operation, McMaster said. They also were able to rescue two cats from inside the burning apartment and resuscitate them outside, he said.

The apartment unit is deemed uninhabitable, he said, as it was “fully gutted,” though surrounding units held up due to the firefighters’ quick action, he said.

Since the cause of the fire is still under investigation, it’s unclear at this time what room the fire started inside the apartment, or what may have caused it, McMaster said.

The fire itself was extinguished in about an hour, though DeKalb fire investigators, DeKalb police and an arson investigator from the Illinois State Fire Marshal’s office remain on scene as of 11:30 a.m. Friday, he said.

Temperatures early Friday morning were in the single digits, with wind chills below zero, which impacted fire mitigations efforts, too, McMaster said.

“That’s definitely a factor,” he said. “You have patients exposed to the elements, so that’s problem number one, trying to provide patient care in bitter cold. As far as fire operations, they were able to gain access to fire hydrants, access to buildings. But it gets cold and we make provisions for that.”

Crews from DeKalb, Burlington, Cortland, Malta, Maple Park and Sycamore also assisted, as did DeKalb and Northern Illinois University police, DeKalb animal control, Com-Ed and Nicor.