BROOKFIELD, Wis. — A fire in Brookfield forced dozens of homes to evacuate and damaged cars at a nearby dealership. The sales manager jumped into action over the weekend, saving other vehicles as the marsh fire burned right up to their parking lot.
“All this burned up here and then, yep, it melted in the whole front,” said Austyn Rennhack, a sales manager at City Jeep of Brookfield.
He said Brookfield police called him yesterday afternoon and told him a fire was heading toward the dealership. Austyn said he rushed over.
“You wanted to move these cars?” asked reporter Rebecca Klopf.
“But I couldn’t,” said Austyn. “By the time I got here, it was too late. The fire had already hit them. They put out what they could and were moving on.”
Instead, Austyn got to work saving other cars on the lot, moving what he could to the inner parking lots as the fire burned around the edges of the dealership. He said it was exhausting trying to stay ahead of it.
“Anytime it would start to go out, the wind would pick up and spread,” said Austyn.
Watch: Brookfield salesman tries to save other cars on dealership lot from marsh fire
That spreading fire shocked a neighbor who lives on the other side of Brookfield Road. Nick Ford pulled out of his subdivision on his way to the grocery store and drove through flames coming up onto the road. TMJ4 News caught his car on video. He told us through social media:
"I wasn't even aware of how big the fire was until I drove up there."
We took the video to the fire chief to ask what was happening at this point and why that road was open. Chief Chris Cass said the first priority was shutting down Capitol Drive because that was where the fire was heading before the wind shifted.
“They eventually did, they eventually did shut down the road,” said Cass. “We work together on that and try to coordinate what streets we need because we try to keep everybody safe."
The fire department is still trying to figure out what started the fire, but they do not consider it suspicious.
This was such a major fire, Cass said the fire department is breaking down their response Tuesday to look at how it was handled and determine best practices moving forward.
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