Fire in Zion, Illinois: Three people killed in house fire at Enoch Avenue, 29th Street, authorities say

ZION, Ill. (WLS) — Three people died in a house fire in northern suburban Zion Tuesday night, according to the Zion Fire Department.

At approximately 11:54 p.m., multiple 911 calls alerted authorities to a fire in the 2900 block of Enoch Avenue, and firefighters arrived to find the residence fully engulfed in flames.

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“It’s a nightmare situation when you get to the scene of a fire that’s already heavily involved,” Zion Fire Chief Justin Stried said.

The fire chief said they found three people upstairs who did not survive.

Another woman was also injured and taken to a nearby hospital.

The Lake County Coroner’s Office identified the dead as 58-year-old Scott Copen, 54-year-old Gina Copen and 41-year-old Cristal Copen. According to the fire department, everyone lived in the house.

An autopsy showed they died of thermal injuries and smoke inhalation, the coroner’s office said.

Toxicological tests are ongoing, including carbon monoxide tests.

A family member said the victims were his sister, mother and uncle, and the house had been in their family for generations.

On Wednesday, rescue teams were cleaning up the remains of the fire. The house was seriously damaged.

“Oh, he was huge, gigantic,” said neighbor Jason Carlin. “The smoke was so high you could barely see the street with the smoke.”

Carlin lives four doors down and he, like other neighbors, said he heard a loud bang just before the fire.

“I heard a loud bang,” Carlin said. “I thought it was my neighbor’s basement door. But then I looked outside. My dog alerted me and she just kept coming to the window. And then I looked outside and saw fire crews starting to arrive. I went outside and the house just burst into flames.”

Next door neighbor George Gregory said he also heard a loud explosion.

He ran outside fearing the fire would spread.

“This event was so intense that our house here, if about 25 minutes had passed, would have lit up. It was so hot,” Gregory said.

Firefighters fought strong winds all morning. The fire took almost four hours to extinguish due to its size and scope and the structure of the house.

“It’s quite a long operation. So we still have a lot of fires, renovations and hot spots that we need to address,” Stried said. “The state fire marshal was called in to assist us with the investigation. There are empty spaces that are difficult to get to; there are spaces between layers of shingles, between walls, near dormers, things like that.”

The fire chief said he didn’t hear any alarms coming from smoke detectors in the house.

“It’s just sad,” Carlin said. “Especially when it happened last night, tears came to my eyes. I was telling my wife, you know, luckily it’s not us, because who knows if it could happen to us.”

Several agencies in Illinois and Wisconsin helped fight the fire.

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.