Knollwood Business Heavily Damaged In Early Morning Fire

KNOLLWOOD, IL — There were no injuries reported after a fire heavily damaged a former roadhouse near the corner of Routes 41 and Rockland Road in unincorporated Lake Bluff early Sunday morning.

The building that for more than half a century housed McCormick's Restaurant & Lounge was gutted in a blaze that appeared to have been begun by lightning and intensified by high winds, according to the owner of the boutique shop that succeeded the bar in the space.

Fire crews from Lake Bluff, Lake Forest and Libertyville were dispatched at 2:18 a.m. to the fire at the two-story business. Firefighters from Lake Bluff were first to arrive, finding a heavy fire with flames visible through the roof. Crews laid out lines on opposite sides of the building before beginning to go after its interior, according to the Lake Bluff Fire Department.

The Lake Forest Fire Department said fire crews started with an offensive attack but transitioned to a defensive operation due to "safety concerns with in the structure."

A mutual aid alarm was activated to call additional crews to the scene, where firefighters worked throughout the night to extinguish the blaze, according to the Lake Bluff Fire Department.

"Limited access and questionable structural integrity of the second floor made fire suppression difficult," the department said.

The owner of Loverly Cottage, which recently shuttered ahead of a planned move to a new location in the spring, described the building as "deteriorating from years of neglect" in a November 2018 blog post. She said it included an upstairs rental unit, a leaky roof and caving of the foundation as just the "tip of the iceberg."

McCormick's closed in 2009 and Loverly Cottage moved into the space in 2016. The shop's final day in the location was Dec. 22. According to property records, the structure is owned by Dan Horvat of Horvat Design Group.

Following the fire, the store owner said the upstairs apartment "no longer exists" and everything that was in the store was destroyed.

The Lake Forest Fire Department said a preliminary estimate indicated the cost of the fire was $400,000.

The response was assisted by fire crews from North Chicago, Highland Park, Libertyville, Mundelein, Northbrook, Countryside, Zion and Lincolnshire, according to Lake Forest Fire Department Division Chief Mike Gallo. The Buffalo Grove Fire Department and the Newport and Deerfield fire protection districts provided apparatus to cover other calls in Lake Forest during the fire.

The fire took place about a block from the now-shuttered Knollwood Fire Department. The 71-year-old volunteer department was shut down last year in a deal with Lake Forest and Libertyville approved and executed before voters in April replace the divided three-member Rockland Fire Protection District board, which was appointed by former Lake County Board Chair Aaron Lawlor.