Fire safety, Milwaukee committee approves proposed ordinance

Milwaukee committee approves sprinkler ordinance

A man died in an apartment fire on Milwaukee’s south side over the weekend. And on Thursday, city leaders voted on a proposed ordinance they hope could keep tenants safe.

MILWAUKEE - A man died in an apartment fire on Milwaukee’s south side over the weekend. And on Thursday, city leaders voted on a proposed ordinance they hope could keep tenants safe.

Proposed ordinance

What they're saying:

The Milwaukee Common Council’s Public Safety and Health Committee discussed a proposed ordinance that would require property owners to tell tenants whether their building is up-to-date with fire safety standards – like a sprinkler system.

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"We can make sure that residents know that they’re about to live in a building that isn’t up to today’s standards," said Ald. Peter Burgelis.

"It’s 2025. Why are we still arguing about this?" said Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski.

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What's next:

Burgelis said the proposal received a unanimous vote to move forward. He said the Common Council will make a final vote on the ordinance at their next meeting, which is scheduled for Nov. 23.

"The city’s putting their thumb on the scale and saying you have to prioritize life, safety," he said. "If you don’t, you have to at least make sure that the tenants that you’re profiting from know that this building is inherently more dangerous because you’ve chosen to not retrofit and install sprinklers in your property."

Tenant safety

Dig deeper:

A tenant of the building at 1st and Layton, where the fatal fire happened over the weekend, invited FOX6 News inside to see the damage on Thursday – but someone who said they represent the property owner said we could not come in.

Tenants have begun to move out, and some added that if sprinklers were installed, that would not be happening now.

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"We need survivable housing. I need people to be able to reside in a place that an oven starting on fire doesn’t take out four units and kill one person and put three others in the burn unit," said Lipski.

FOX6 reached out to a variety of rental and apartment associations about the proposed city ordinance but did not hear back by the deadline for this story.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester), a landlord himself, has said in the past that property owners will likely need to pass on costs of new safety measures to tenants – driving up the cost of housing.