A house fire on Griffith Road in Lake Forest killed one resident and sent another leaping from a second-story window to escape the flames just after midnight Sunday. Firefighters arriving at the two-story home in the 1200 block found heavy fire showing from a rear first-floor window, and within about 35 minutes had knocked the blaze down, though the structure was left completely uninhabitable.
According to Lake Forest Deputy Fire Chief Chris Roberts, as reported by Lake and McHenry County Scanner, crews arrived around 12:02 a.m. Sunday and immediately deployed a hose line into the rear of the home to attack the fire. Inside, a person was found unresponsive and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to fire officials cited by NBC Chicago. That resident has not been publicly identified.
A second occupant jumped from a second-story window to escape the flames and was taken to an area hospital for treatment, per NBC Chicago's reporting. The station notes authorities said that resident's condition had stabilized. The same person was transported to Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital in stable condition, according to the Scanner's account, which identified the North Shore facility as the destination for treatment.
Coroner and State Fire Marshal Now Involved
The Lake County Coroner's Office arrived at the scene to take custody of the deceased resident, a step that will include an autopsy to determine an official cause of death, the Scanner reported. That process is also expected to lead to formal identification of the victim, since notification protocols require confirmation before a name is released.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, according to NBC Chicago. The Illinois State Fire Marshal's office is assisting with that investigation, the outlet reported, with investigators from the state office arriving at the scene around 2:45 a.m. after a MABAS box alarm was activated specifically to summon specialized fire investigators, per the Scanner's reporting.
A Dozen Departments Answered the Call
Extinguishing the blaze and supporting the investigation required a substantial regional response. Nearby fire departments assisted in putting out the fire, NBC Chicago reported, and the Daily Herald reported that a total of 12 neighboring departments and agencies — including Lake Bluff, North Chicago, Libertyville, Highland Park, Deerfield, Countryside, Lincolnshire, Waukegan, Round Lake, Buffalo Grove, Mundelein, and Lake Zurich — assisted Lake Forest crews under mutual aid agreements.
That kind of multi-department scramble is made possible by MABAS Division 4, the regional mutual aid framework that standardizes radio communications and equipment sharing across Lake County municipal fire departments, according to MABAS Division 4 operational records. The Lake Forest Fire Department itself operates out of two stations under Fire Chief Andy Rick and Deputy Chief Roberts, with more than 30 full-time firefighter/paramedics serving the city, according to municipal records from the City of Lake Forest.
Second Serious Fire for Lake Forest Crews This Year
Sunday's fire is not the department's first high-stakes rescue this year. In March, Lake Forest firefighters extricated a trapped resident from a burning single-family home near Middlefork Drive and Jensen Drive, as reported by CBS News Chicago at the time. Griffith Road itself sits in a section of East Lake Forest platted in the 1910s as part of a subdivision developed by real estate figure John Griffith, an area known for its historic bungalows and early-to-mid 20th century single-family homes, according to the Lake Forest Preservation Foundation.
Several key details remain unresolved as the investigation continues. Investigators have not released the official cause and origin of the fire, the deceased resident's identity is still pending confirmation through the coroner's autopsy, and there has been no updated condition report on the hospitalized survivor beyond the initial word that the person had stabilized.
