MILWAUKEE — A body was discovered inside a burned building one day after a fire occurred there, according to the Milwaukee Fire Department (MFD).
MFD responded to a building fire near 26th and Greenfield around 2:40 p.m. on Tuesday. After extinguishing the fire, multiple searches of the home were conducted with the help of the Milwaukee Police Department.
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On Wednesday around 2:10 p.m., MFD was requested back to the same building for a report of a dead individual inside. According to MFD, the body's discovery was "nearly impossible given the extreme hoarder conditions throughout the building."
"We do not make that statement lightly," MFD Chief Aaron Lipski said Wednesday. "We scrutinized all areas where firefighting took place, considered the location of the deceased person, and have reviewed the available evidence."
TMJ4's Bruce Harrison spoke with an employee of the company that owns the building. She told him the space that caught fire is a warehouse, and they have been leasing it to a man. She wouldn't confirm if that was the man who was found dead inside their property.
Harrison later ran into several of the company's employees outside the warehouse, which had been boarded up. They said they planned to evaluate the space to clean it out.
A half dozen area business owners and neighbors said they knew of an older man who often visited the warehouse. They said he would come and go, pushing a cart full of random items. They said he was kind and never bothered anymore.
MFD says the investigation is open and ongoing. Additional information is expected soon. Milwaukee police are also investigating.
As of Thursday evening, the Medical Examiner said they still had not yet positively identified the body or located the family.
