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Authorities continue to investigate the New Year's Day fire that claimed three lives in Hamletsburg in far southern Pope County.
The fire was reported at 3 a.m. at 618 A Dog Island Road and firefighters found three adults had died inside the mobile home.
Sheriff Jerry Suits was to meet with Coroner Mark Aly Tuesday, but Suits did not anticipate releasing the names by the end of the day.
He termed the fire the most destructing he has ever witnessed.
"It's the worst one I've ever seen," Suits said.
"It was a tragedy down there."
Suits said as of Tuesday there was still no positive identification of the victims.
Suits said his department, the coroner's office and the Illinois Fire Marshal's Office are investigating.
Suits said his immediate goal is to find closure for families involved.
As a state fire investigator works to zero in on what sparked the blaze, Suits doesn't figure the fire started suspiciously before swiftly engulfing the dwelling along a dead-end gravel road. By the time firefighters arrived after the 911 call fielded shortly after 3 a.m. Sunday, the house was lost.
"The flames were high as a two- or three-story building," he said. "It was totally engulfed. I was told by firefighters that in six to 10 minutes, the mobile home was going to be gone. They did what they could do."
Firefighters a short time later began recovering the victims' remains, stunning those left in the hamlet that by a 13-6 vote in 1998 decided to un-incorporate "essentially dissolve" as it struggled to fill its government positions.
"We're probably the smallest of the small communities, with basic, everyday working people," James Lewis, a 50-year-old farmer and cattleman, said Tuesday while babysitting his only grandchild, a 6-month-old boy, while his wife was getting her hair done.
Losing three locals in the blink of an eye, Lewis said, "is quite a shock."
"It makes you sick," he said from his home roughly a mile outside of everybody-knows-everybody Hamletsburg, accessible by a back road. "You don't like to wake up to that kind of news, whether you're in a big city or small town. But when it's a smaller place like this, I think it has more of a jarring effect."
— Jim Suhr of the Associated Press contributed to this report. DeNeal receives e-mail at bdeneal@yourclearwave.com.
Authorities continue to investigate the New Year's Day fire that claimed three lives in Hamletsburg in far southern Pope County.
The fire was reported at 3 a.m. at 618 A Dog Island Road and firefighters found three adults had died inside the mobile home.
Sheriff Jerry Suits was to meet with Coroner Mark Aly Tuesday, but Suits did not anticipate releasing the names by the end of the day.
He termed the fire the most destructing he has ever witnessed.
"It's the worst one I've ever seen," Suits said.
"It was a tragedy down there."
Suits said as of Tuesday there was still no positive identification of the victims.
Suits said his department, the coroner's office and the Illinois Fire Marshal's Office are investigating.
Suits said his immediate goal is to find closure for families involved.
As a state fire investigator works to zero in on what sparked the blaze, Suits doesn't figure the fire started suspiciously before swiftly engulfing the dwelling along a dead-end gravel road. By the time firefighters arrived after the 911 call fielded shortly after 3 a.m. Sunday, the house was lost.
"The flames were high as a two- or three-story building," he said. "It was totally engulfed. I was told by firefighters that in six to 10 minutes, the mobile home was going to be gone. They did what they could do."
Firefighters a short time later began recovering the victims' remains, stunning those left in the hamlet that by a 13-6 vote in 1998 decided to un-incorporate "essentially dissolve" as it struggled to fill its government positions.
"We're probably the smallest of the small communities, with basic, everyday working people," James Lewis, a 50-year-old farmer and cattleman, said Tuesday while babysitting his only grandchild, a 6-month-old boy, while his wife was getting her hair done.
Losing three locals in the blink of an eye, Lewis said, "is quite a shock."
"It makes you sick," he said from his home roughly a mile outside of everybody-knows-everybody Hamletsburg, accessible by a back road. "You don't like to wake up to that kind of news, whether you're in a big city or small town. But when it's a smaller place like this, I think it has more of a jarring effect."
— Jim Suhr of the Associated Press contributed to this report. DeNeal receives e-mail at bdeneal@yourclearwave.com.
