Excerpts from rex.com:
A house fire at 2020 Silverthorn Ave. in Byron has claimed the lives of two people. The Byron fire chief on the scene says they believe the victims were a woman and a toddler. The call came in at around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Firefighters say there were working smoke detectors in the house and they heard them going off when they arrived on the scene.
The Byron fire chief says this is the first deadly fire in the city in at least 20 years.
One person was taken to Rockford Memorial Hospital for treatment but they were pronounced dead at the hospital.
Police say that the home was occupied by a family, but it is not known at this time who was in the home when the fire started.
