Three children, two adults killed in fire northwest of Marengo in Boone County

Five people, including three girls ages 9, 13 and 14, were found dead following an early morning fire Monday in a rural area northwest of Marengo, the Boone County Fire Protection District 2 chief said.

A 20-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man were among the people who died, and another six residents of the home were hospitalized with two remaining in critical condition, Fire Chief Brian Kunce said. A Boone County sheriff’s deputy also was treated and released, according to the sheriff’s office.

Emergency crews were dispatched about 2:20 a.m. Monday to the 11000 block of Fleming Road in rural Garden Prairie for a reported house fire, according to a statement from the Boone County Sheriff’s Office. All of those injured or killed, not including the deputy, appeared to be members of one family, Kunce said.

Winter weather conditions caused the response time to be twice as long as it normally would have been, Kunce said. The first crews arrived 16 to 17 minutes after the call of a fire inside the home with four children trapped upstairs came in.

The closest fire station in unincorporated Garden Prairie was unmade, and so the responding firefighters reported from their homes to the station and then to the home, Kunce said.

The house was “fully engulfed” and firefighters had to deal with “minor explosions” while also putting out a small shed and three cars that were on fire, attending to six patients and protecting other structures on the property, Kunce said.

The home was located about a half mile from the main road and with no place near the home for equipment to turn around, crews had to lay about 2,700 feet of hose to shuttle water from the water tenders to the main engine, Kunce told the Northwest Herald.

“Everything was not in our favor,” he said.

Boone County District 2 Fire along with multiple fire departments from Boone, Winnebago, Ogle, DeKalb and McHenry counties battled the fire for several hours, the sheriff’s office said.

The cause of the fire was under investigation Monday and a determination may take a while as the home was a “total loss,” Kunce said.

The investigation is being handled by the Boone County Sheriff’s Office; Boone County District 2 Fire; the Office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive; the Illinois State Police; Salvation Army; and the Boone County Coroner’s Office. Kunce said the ATF’s involvement was routine and part of the Illinois State Fire Marshal’s team.

ATF will often assist in determining the cause and origin of a fire, ATF spokeswoman Kimberly Nerheim said, but as of Monday, she said she could not comment further.

An attempt to reach the Boone County Coroner’s Office was unsuccessful.

Lucky Mustangs Video Gaming & Lounge, a gaming lounge and bar located at 2195 N. State St., in Belvidere, is acting as a donation center for the family, the Rockford Register Star reported.

It is accepting items such as toiletries, blankets, pillows, food and restaurant gift cards during Luck Mustangs regular business hours, which are 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Reporter Aaron Dorman contributed to this report.