A Milwaukee apartment fire displaced residents from about 80 units and sent seven people to the hospital on Jan. 13, Fire Chief Aaron Lipski said. The cause of the blaze, including whether arson was involved, remains under investigation.
New Hampton Gardens apartment, 4821 N. 22 St., doesn’t have a sprinkler system despite it being built six years after state law required it. The fire reignited city officials’ calls for sprinklers in older multi-unit buildings.
More than 20 apparatus rushed to the scene, including North Shore Fire Department, when a 911 call came through at 1:37 p.m., a news release said.
Firefighters arrived to find people hanging from second- and third-floor windows on both sides of one wing of the building, which is where the fire began. Crews used ladders to pull residents to safety and entered the building to rescue others, Lipski said.
Among those rescued was an elderly woman who required CPR before being taken to Ascension Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital. Six others were hospitalized with less severe injuries and transported by ambulance, Lipski said.
Lipski was shocked to learn the 230-unit, three-floor building didn’t have sprinklers, he said during a press conference. The building was built in 1979. The city requires residential buildings 60 feet and higher that were constructed after Nov. 12, 1973, to have sprinkler systems.
“Again, we have a building with no sprinklers,” Lipski said. “I cannot stress the importance of having sprinklers in buildings, especially in multifamily dwellings, especially multifamily dwellings that are housing elderly people who may be a little bit slower.”
Part of the fire department’s investigation will be to understand how come the building wasn’t required to have sprinklers, Lipski said.
City officials estimate nearly 70% of Milwaukee’s high-rise buildings were constructed before 1973, with likely 30,000 to 50,000 residents living in units without sprinklers. But city officials say their hands are tied. A state law prohibits Milwaukee from enforcing fire safety laws – like retrofitting sprinklers into older buildings – that are stricter than state law.
People are 90% more likely to survive fires if the property has automatic sprinklers, according to the National Fire Protection Association.
Since the Highland Court apartment fire took five lives last year, Lipski says the fire department and the Department of Neighborhood Services have been working to identify all the multi-unit buildings in Milwaukee that don’t have sprinklers.
Mayor Cavalier Johnson said at the press conference he’s “sick and tired” of multi-unit apartment buildings not having sprinklers.
“These landlords and property owners should proactively be coming forward to us and the people who live in there about whether or not they have sprinklers,” Johnson said. “These are people’s lives that are being affected.”
Tenants react to blaze
Once the fire alarms started blaring, several tenants told the Journal Sentinel they didn’t know whether to believe it. The fire alarm has been triggered on a weekly if not daily basis, said Alex Love, who has lived in the building for the past 10 years.
The alarms jolted Angela Taylor awake from a nap. She almost went back to sleep – thinking it was a false alarm – until she saw smoke coming from the building hallway into her unit, she said. Without any other options, she opened her window, pushed out the screen and jumped to safety from her second-floor apartment. She raced back inside to get her sister, who is blind, from her first-floor apartment, Taylor said.
Taylor says she personally isn’t injured, but her back is sore.
Taylor said she usually cares for her granddaughter, adding it is fortunate that she wasn’t with her Tuesday afternoon.
Terry Williams, 70, moved into the apartment building in November. He says he figured the building didn’t have sprinklers, but he didn’t know for sure until the day of the fire. An ordinance requiring landlords to disclose the absence of sprinklers to renters before they sign a lease went into effect in December.
Fortunately, his unit is likely unaffected by the fire since he lives on the other side of the building. As he waited outside in the 40-degree weather for security to allow tenants back inside, he said:
“I really wish it had sprinklers. We’re lucky the firemen got here in time.”
Gina Castro is a Public Investigator reporter. She can be reached at gcastro@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee fire displaces 80, hospitalizes 7, renews sprinkler debate
Reporting by Gina Lee Castro, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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