Milwaukee fire chief says he can’t rule out that deadly apartment fire was an ‘intentional act’

Milwaukee’s fire chief said he can’t rule out the possibility that a fatal apartment fire was an “intentional act.”

Five people died in the five-alarm fire on Sunday, while another seven people — including a 1-year-old — were hospitalized for their injuries.

Some residents jumped from upper floor apartment windows or climbed down balconies to escape the blaze. Firefighters rescued dozens of people, dragging some from the interior of the building and using ladders to help others escape from windows.

“The potential for an intentional act cannot be ruled out at this point,” Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski told reporters during a Tuesday press conference. 

The Mother’s Day morning fire displaced about 100 residents of the Highland Court Apartment complex on Milwaukee’s near west side. On Monday, 29 people slept at an emergency shelter set up by the Red Cross of Wisconsin.

Members of the Department of Justice; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Department of Criminal Investigation; Wisconsin State Patrol; the Milwaukee Police Department and the Milwaukee Fire Department are involved in the investigation, according to a statement from the fire department. 

Milwaukee Police Department Captain David Anderson of the major crimes division told reporters he could not discuss specifics of the case.

“There’s stuff we’re looking into — we have not made any determination,” Anderson said. “We’ve got all the people, we’ve got experts that are on this.”

The property is owned by Wisconsin Robinson Family Limited Partnership, according to online property records. Geraldine Robinson is the apartment manager and lived in the building

Robinson told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel she believed an “accelerant” was thrown to start the fire. She could not be reached for comment by WPR.

Lipski said he couldn’t comment when questioned by reporters about whether an accelerant was used to start the fire.

“Even if we were operating on that suspicion, it’s not something we can declare,” Lipski said, adding that a “thorough investigation” was underway.

“We just don’t know enough to be able to say anything definitively,” he said. 

Residents of the 85-unit building have still not been able to get back inside to retrieve personal items. Lipski estimated it could be at least a week until that happens.

Lipki also said although the building is currently uninhabitable, it is not a “total loss.” 

“There will be an area of the building that, even after the rest would open up, there are chunks of the building that sustained some serious fire damage,” he said. “Those units wouldn’t be inhabitable, but the structure itself appears to be sound.” 

Because the building was constructed in 1968, it is not required to have a sprinkler system.

“I am telling you, we don’t have this loss of life, the severity of injuries, this amount of property damage, if that building is sprinklered,” Lipski said. 

Lipski said 48 people were rescued from the fire by firefighters.

The roughly 96,000-square-feet building is in Milwaukee Alder Bob Bauman’s district. Bauman introduced a communication file Tuesday which will be heard later in the month by a city committee to learn more about the building not being required to have sprinklers.

Bauman said it would require a change in state law to require buildings built before 1974 to retrofit with sprinkler systems, as he said the state building code is governed by state statute.

“We hope to get to get to the bottom of what is the history of this, this whole issue of sprinklering, and what can be done to make sure incidents like this do not happen again,” Bauman said.