Elliot Hughes|Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Milwaukee firefighters are fielding a nearly 25% increase in structure fire calls this winter compared to last winter, challenging a department already spread thin.
Not only has the season been busy, it's been unusually destructive. Four people were killed in residential fires in a 17-day period beginning in late January. On top of that, during the first two months of the year, fires displaced almost 500 people from their homes in Milwaukee, according to the American Red Cross of Wisconsin.
Adding to the difficulty have been Arctic temperatures and huge snowbanks, whichnarrowed streets and buried hydrants.
The callshave let up some recently – as has the weather – but the winter stretch comes after a shorthanded department navigated almost a year of COVID-19-related obstacles and several bouts of civil unrest.
“What you’re looking at is an engine that is running at high RPMs and it’s going need some tending at some point,” said Acting Fire Chief Aaron Lipski. “We are rocking, and our people are freaking exhausted.Right now I am extremely proud of the folks out in the field. They are working their tails off.”
From Dec. 1 to Feb. 23, the Milwaukee Fire Department responded to 127 structure fire calls, up from 103 during the same period a year ago.
Surprisingly, the department received a 12% drop inoverall calls for service compared to a year ago. But that doesn’t offer much of a reprieve when resource-intensive calls like structure fires are on the rise, Lipski said.
More smoke alarms needed
There’s no obvious trend behind the causes of the fires. Careless use of smoking materials, electrical issues and various accidents have been cited more than once, but none of them representa significant share of the causes, Lipski said.
That leaves the pandemic as his best guess behind the rise this year. Social distancing in a Wisconsin winter could mean more people are consuming more energy in their home, creating more chances for an electrical failureor a space heater mishap.
Officials have confirmed that three of the four fatal firesin January and February involved structures without smoke alarms, forcing the department to step up outreach efforts for fire safety.
Last week, a group of volunteers, fire officials and Ald. JoCasta Zamarripa went door-to-door in the Clarke Square neighborhood on the near south side and installed about 40 smoke alarms in two hours.
Zamarripa’s near-south side district has been hit the hardest by the city’s rash of fires, having been the scene of fires that killed three people and displaced more than 100 others.
Two days after a fire killed Steve A. Hobson, 61, on Milwaukee’s northwest side, an apartment fire in Zamarripa’s district displaced 122 people and also killed Nathaniel Beal, 61.
That was followed about a week later by another fire that spread to three residences, displaced 15 people and killed Natividad Villanueva-Rodriguez, 55. Four days later, Martin Rodriguez-Flores, 57, was killed in another residential fire. Both were also in Zamarripa’s district.
As of Feb. 24, the American Red Cross was still providing shelter, food or other resources to 84 of the 122 people displaced by the Jan. 28 fire that killed Beal. A veterans group, called VetsNet, has also stepped in to assist 31 veterans affected by the fire.
“It’s been very devastating,” said Zamarippa, who is planning additional canvassing in her district about smoke alarms. “I’m very grateful to the American Red Cross for housing over 100 near-south siders for a month, if not longer.”
Another station closes
The busy fire season comes right as the Fire Department was forced to close one of its south side fire stationsnear Mitchell International Airport, at 4653 S. 13th Street, as a 2021 budget casualty.
That’s expected to impact response times for the area, but Lipski said Station 17’s closure has not figured into the deadly fires happening about four miles north.
The department’s average response time for February–3 minutes and 48 seconds–is about 20 seconds longer than it was in 2020. But for at least two of the fatal fires in Zamarripa's district, fire crews were able to arrive on scene in well under three minutes, according to department data.
Nevertheless, Station 17 is the seventh to shut down since 2018. That’s a 20% reduction in stations in just three years and comes after 15 years of constant cutting.
For Lipski, it's hard to see where another budget casualty could come from. Already, one emergency in the city has the potential to create a void somewhere else.
“We have come through a period of timewhere we had fat to trim, quite frankly, and we did that,” Lipski said. “It’s become brittle, where a single emergency of extreme complexity, or just itself a massive draw on resources, creates a sizable void in the city for which there’s not any ability to absorb that.”
How to get a free smoke alarm
Anyone in need of a smoke alarm can call the Smoke Alarm Hotlineat414-286-8980to arrange for a Milwaukee firefighter to visit your home and deliver an alarm free of charge. Installation will be provided by the firefighter if the home is COVID-19 safe.
Contact Elliot Hughes at elliot.hughes@jrn.com or 414-704-8958. Follow him on Twitter@elliothughes12.
