4 Rescued, Taken to Hospital Following Elgin House Fire

ELGIN, IL - Four people were taken to the hospital following a house fire in Elgin early Tuesday morning.

The Elgin Fire Department was call to the home in the 300 block of Division Street in Elgin at 12:10 a.m. on Tuesday, according to a news release.

Before firefighters arrived on scene, a downstairs tenant went to notify an upstairs neighbor about the fire when he found two children standing at the top of the stairs and rescued them from the blaze.

The first arriving fire companies reported extensive black smoke was coming from the second floor with two people hanging out the windows, according to a news release.

Lt. Eric Gurke and firefighter Guy Blando rescued a 19-year-old woman who was hanging out of a side window while Capt. Richard Carter and firefighter Michael Vogel rescued a 16-year-old girl from a front window.

The fire was extinguished within 20 minutes. The second floor of the house had extensive fire damage in a rear bedroom, with heat and smoke damage throughout the remainder of the floor, according to fire officials.

Twelve Elgin fire units worked at the scene while the Elgin fire stations were temporarily manned by four neighboring fire agencies.

The four people rescued were transported by ambulance to Provena St. Joseph's Hospital. The fire remains under investigation.

The Department of Code Enforcement was notified after determining that the building was not habitable.