4 dead, hundreds displaced by Milwaukee apartment building fire

Four people died and four others were critically injured in a fire that ripped through a Milwaukee apartment building Sunday morning.

Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski said the fire left the 85-unit apartment building near 27th Street and Highland Boulevard completely uninhabitable, displacing potentially a couple hundred people.

Lipski said firefighters arrived on the scene at 7:46 a.m. on Mother’s Day and quickly realized the severity of the blaze.

“When our members got here, they were far, far, far outmatched,” Lipski said.

A total of 30 fire trucks eventually responded to the five-alarm fire, including some from the Wauwatosa and West Allis fire departments.

Lipski said that because the apartment building was constructed in 1968, it was not required to have standpipes or a sprinkler system, which let the fire spread rapidly and made it harder to survive.

“Our firefighters ascending from the second floor to the third floor were fighting fire blowing down the stairwell at them,” Lipski said. “If you know anything about fire, it doesn’t normally travel downward. So there was a very, very heavy fire condition on that third floor and just a wicked mix.”

Lipski said that before firefighters arrived at the building, they were getting 911 calls about people jumping from upper floors of the building. While he said firefighters did not witness jumpers, they found people on the ground when they arrived and moved them from the base of the building.

“Absolutely a horrible way to begin Mother’s Day here,” Lipski said.

Lipski estimated that 30 people were rescued, either via ladder or by firefighters on their hands and knees dragging people out of the building.

The city was still investigating the cause of the fire, which Lipski said appeared to start in a common area of the building, rather than in a residence.

The fire department is working with the Red Cross to find shelter for those who were displaced.