Fatal Milwaukee fire started in abandoned house, spread rapidly
MILWAUKEE - Neighbors think a fast-moving fire that killed a woman and badly burned a Milwaukee firefighter could have been prevented.
Neighbors say it somehow sparked at a house that was boarded up.
On Sunday, April 14, when the fire started, the flames jumped to the homes next door to it.
Now a woman is dead, and a firefighter has horrific burns.
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Fatal Milwaukee fire, 1 person dead and 1 firefighter burned
One person is dead following a fire in Milwaukee in the early morning hours of Sunday, April 14, and a Milwaukee firefighter was severely burned.
"I’m sad because she passed away. It’s hard I lost my home, where I lived for 8 years. Now I have to find a new home," said Rosa Serna, who is now picking up the pieces after a fire that started next door spread to her home near 8th and Hayes early Sunday morning.
"I looked out the window, I saw fire out the window and ran outside," Serna added.
Cell phone video shows the powerful flames. Serna says it started in what was supposed to be a vacant, abandoned house. It had long been seen as a neighborhood nuisance.
"There was prostitution, drugs, everything. You’d find needles out here, and we complained about it a lot of times. But they don’t do anything about it," Serna added.
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The fire was caught on video by a neighbor
Records show the house was once called the ‘circus’ in the neighborhood.
The city says it had no electricity and was boarded up, so how a fire started there is a mystery to neighbors.
"There were a lot of firemen and things going on," said Serna.
The home to the other side of the abandoned home is where the woman died.
While trying to rescue her, a Milwaukee firefighter became trapped and suffered severe burns.
The charred front of the house near 8th and Hayes
"This was a very marginal fire. I'm telling you we were probably 30 seconds away from talking about planning a firefighter funeral," said Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski said on Sunday after the firefighter was taken to Columbia St. Mary's hospital.
FOX6 has learned the firefighter has burns on 23% percent of his body, including 3rd-degree burns.
"This is a firefighter who is a fighter," said Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson.
As families and the fire department search for answers, Serna’s heart is with her neighbors, two houses down, who lost a loved one.
FOX6 later learned the identity of the woman who died in the fire, 72-year-old Monica Lemke.
The firefighter's union says the firefighter be in the hospital for a while because of the burn injuries.
Neighbors did say sometimes people would go in and out of the vacant house.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
One of the families impacted by the fire has set up a GoFundMe.