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Ladder trucks were used to rescue other residents from windows
while some firefighters inside the burning building crawled on
hands and knees to get people out, Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron
Lipski said Sunday. In all, about 30 people were rescued.
Authorities have not said how the fire might have started.
Lipski said the building did not have a sprinkler system and was
built in 1968, predating a law that would have required one,
according to the fire chief.
“If we had sprinklers in the buidling we would have stopped the
fire very, very small. We would not of had to have people
jumping out of windows,” he said.
Several other residents were treated for lesser injuries in the
fire that began sometime before 8 a.m. The blaze rendered the
85-unit building uninhabitable, displacing an estimated 200
people.
James Rubinstein, a resident in the building, said he jumped to
the ground floor.
“There was so much smoke. I climbed out the courtyard with my
cat in my backpack,” Rubinstein told television station FOX6
Milwaukee.
Emergency operaters received calls that people were trapped and
jumping to escape. The first firefighters to arrive were “far,
far outmatched” by intense flames, Lipski said.
Authorities did not immediately release the identities or ages
of the victims. Lipski said the fire began in a common area and
spread to multiple floors.
Eddie Edwards, another resident of the building, said he also
jumped to escape.
“I wasn’t thinking about nothing but getting away,” he told
Milwaukee television station WISN. “Getting out and saving
everyone’s life. It was a scary moment.”
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