One-and-a-half-year-old boy killed in fire at home near 45th and Center



MILWAUKEE -- Officials with the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office say a one-and-a-half-year-old boy was killed in a fire at a home near 45th and Center on Thursday, May 5th.

A battalion chief with the Milwaukee Fire Department says they received the call around 6:00 p.m.

According to officials, the boy was inside the home with adults and several other children when the fire started.

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When firefighters arrived at the scene, they found heavy flames and smoke coming from the second floor of the duplex.

"It was big lot of flames coming out of the windows. Stuff was just popping and breaking. The windows -- a lot of black smoke," Latrice Mitchell said.

Mitchell shot video of the fire with her cell phone.

At first, they were told there may have been several children inside, but soon they determined only one was unaccounted for.

Mitchell said her heart broke when she learned a child died in this fire.

"It hurts and it`s not even my child. It just hurts. I can`t imagine if that was any one of my kids. Sad. Just sad," Mitchell said.

The fire was so powerful that by the time firefighters were able to reach the child on the second floor, it was too late.

"The report that I heard was everybody was rushing out of the building. Somebody else thought that somebody else had the year-and-a-half-year-old, and it wasn't until they got outside that they determined that they didn't and so that's when we arrived and took over from there.  As soon as we got conditions where we could navigate that entire second floor, we immediately found that year-and-a-half-year-old and it was to no avail," said Battalion Chief Ralph Gallow with the Milwaukee Fire Department.

Fire at 45th and Center



FOX6 News is told some neighbors also tried to enter the building but the fire was too strong.

A source tells FOX6 News this fire is not believed to be suspicious.

Monitor FOX6 News and FOX6Now.com for updates on this developing story.