A man and a woman died in a three-alarm house fire in southwest suburban La Grange early this morning, officials said.
The village's Fire Department received several 911 calls just after 1:30 a.m. about a fire at a house in the 900 block of South Kensington Avenue, Fire Chief William J. Bryzgalski said.
A man in his 90s and a woman whose age has not been released were taken from the home to Adventist La Grange Memorial Hospital, officials said. The man was pronounced dead at 3:32 a.m., and the woman - whom Bryzgalski described as elderly -- was pronounced dead at 5:18 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
Bryzgalski said he wasn't sure of the relationship between the victims. The Fire Department is withholding their names until their relatives are notified of the deaths, he said.
The cause of the fire has not been determined, Bryzgalski said. The state fire marshal's office is assisting in the investigation, the chief said.
This afternoon, yellow caution tape surrounded the corner lot where the red-brick house is located. Plywood boards replaced the windows.
Tony Kernagis, who lives next door to the house that burned, said he and his wife were awakened by a police officer banging on their front door. The officer told them that they and their children had two minutes to get out, because firefighters feared the flames could spread to their house, Kernagis said.
Kernagis said his wife took their 10-year-old son and 8-year-old twin girls to a friend's house while he stayed on the street to keep an eye on their house and help alert other neighbors.
Kernagis said he feared the worst as soon as he went outside and saw flames shooting through the roof and windows of his neighbors' home.
"With the amount of smoke that I could see from the outside, I didn't have a good feeling about it," he said.
Kernagis, 43, said he and the man who died in the fire chatted whenever they saw each other, although he said the victims seemed to spend a lot of time at another home outside Illinois.
Kernagis said his neighbor was a friendly man who let neighborhood children play on his lawn and had lived in the home for decades.
"We saw them quite often," Kernagis said. "I would help him take out the garbage or shovel the walk. We would say hello."
Kernagis said his home sustained minor smoke damage inside, as well as some damage to its siding and roof. He commended firefighters for preventing the fire from doing more damage to his home.
"We're going to be OK, comparatively," he said. "All in all, we lucked out."
Another neighbor, Ralph Fornari, 60, said his wife was headed to bed shortly before 2 a.m. when she saw the light from the flames through the window. She immediately dialed 911, Fornari said, and the couple began alerting neighbors.
Fornari said the man was World War II veteran and a "great guy."
"No one would say an unkind word about him," Fornari said. "(He and the woman) were very kind and kept to themselves."
Fornari said the couple had recently returned from a trip to Florida.
Neighbor Peter Hill said he thought the man had lived in the home for nearly 40 years.
rhaggerty@tribune.com
Twitter: @RyanTHaggerty
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