Intense flames spread across three houses just feet apart in Milwaukee early Sunday, leaving one woman dead and a firefighter severely injured.
The Milwaukee Fire Department (MFD) got the call around 5:00 a.m., and five minutes later they arrived at homes near S. 8th St. and W. Arthur Ave. and learned a woman was trapped.
“When they got here the fire was already out of control I would say. It was — that whole house was in flames, windows were busting,” area neighbor Celia Vazquez said. “I thought it was gonna explode because it was so big — like big.”
MFD Chief Aaron Lipski said Firefighters on the scene quickly rescued someone on the first floor of one of the homes. That person told them a family member with mobility issues was trapped in the attic, so they continued searching the home.
Lipski said that’s when things went bad to worse. The second floor near the stairs was suddenly covered in flames. On the other side of those flames, Lipski said one firefighter made the brave decision to go on, hoping to rescue the woman trapped inside and putting his own life in jeopardy.
“I’m telling you we were probably 30 seconds away from talking about planning a firefighter funeral,” Lipski said.
He said almost half of the firefighter’s body is covered in burns and has a long road to recovering at Columbia St. Mary’s.
First responders couldn’t save the woman inside and that’s left Chief Lipski wondering if things could have been different.
“This is what we’ve been telling you,” Lipski said. “This is the difference.”
500 feet away from the home where the woman died sits what remains of Milwaukee Fire Station 31 which was closed in 2018.
At a news conference late Sunday morning with Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, Lipski was critical of past budget cuts to the city’s fire department.
“It almost killed one of my firefighters today and a civilian has been lost,” he added.
He also thanked the mayor and County Executive David Crowley for investing in the fire department and reopening stations for the first time in his career.
Officials would not yet identify the firefighter injured or the woman who died. However, they said the firefighter has worked for MFD for the past three years and comes from a family of first responders.
“This is a firefighter who is a fighter,” the Mayor added, “Somebody that we’re going to have to try to hold back because he’s going to be pushing and prodding to get back to health and get back to the job because he loves it so much.”
There are plans to reopen Station 31, but Lipski does not yet know when.
“I think it would have made so much difference if it was one closer,” Vazquez said, “because probably, they would have noticed and caught it on time.”
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