Milwaukee property owners often not held accountable for fatal fire hazards

MILWAUKEE — In March,  a Milwaukee child died in a house fire.  There was no working smoke detector in the home. A FOX6 analysis of Milwaukee Fire Department data and Department of Neighborhood Services records shows a single change in policy might have saved that child's life.

Two years before that fatal fire started, court records show the city of Milwaukee knew there was no working smoke detector in that home.

But for two years, nobody made the landlord install one, even though four children lived in the upstairs apartment.

"It's really tragic to have a fire. And when you have someone die in a fire -- I mean, hopefully this will be a wake up call for people to really get on their business," said a neighbor, who watched the fire from afar.

MJ was 18 months old when he died in a house fire.

"It hurts. It's not even my children and it just hurts," neighbor Patrice Mitchell said. "I can't even imagine if that was any one of my kids -- just sad."

Assistant City Attorney, Patrick Leigl, says the city regularly enforces code violations, but the city can't physically force property owners to install smoke detectors.

A review of city records shows the upstairs apartment had no working smoke detectors.

"The property owner failed to install smoke detectors," Assistant City Attorney Patrick Leigl said.

In April of 2014, city inspectors first noticed the problem and alerted the landlord, eventually taking her to court twice.

"In a perfect world, nobody would come to court. Because everybody, if they had orders on the property, they would fix it up right away and not have to come to court. Unfortunately, that's not the way it works,"  Leigl said.

In this case, for two years city inspectors and city attorneys tried to get the landlord to install smoke detectors at least 10 times.  She fixed other problems at the property, and paid hefty city fines, but never installed smoke detectors.

"It's just a complete disregard to any kind of compliance whatsoever," Leigl said.

"That would have  probably gave a chance for him to live," said Cherie Franks, the grandmother of the child who died in the fire. "You never know. If somebody could have got in there sooner before it got so bad..."

Police reports show by the time the fire department arrived on scene, much of the damage had already been done.

"I can just hear him screaming in the house. I can't stop hearing it," Franks said.

MJ's grandmother still has a hard time coping after the death of her grandson.

According to a FOX6 review of city records, in the last five years, 42 people have died in house fires in Milwaukee. Most of those homes had no working smoke detectors. Twenty percent of the time the property owner had previously been in trouble with the city because of a fire hazard at the home.

In most cases, the underlying fire hazard was never corrected despite the city taking property owners to municipal court.

"You got these people paying you rent all this and you can't even have smoke detectors in the there? That's ridiculous. That's just ridiculous. And they should be accountable for that," Franks said.

But the city says it can't physically make landlords install smoke detectors.

"The city can order that, and the city can bring them into court for as much compliance as they can, but unfortunately your hands are tied in some aspects," Leigl said.

The landlord of the property where the child died is Milwaukee County Corrections Officer Shaunta Finley. She owns and rents two properties in Milwaukee. Both burned this year. City records show neither had working smoke detectors. Finley would not respond to FOX6's request for comment.

Firefighters will install smoke detectors in your home for free. Call 414-286-8980.

In more than half of the fatal fires in Milwaukee, there's not a working smoke detector. When landlords don't or won't install one, the city doesn't do it either. That means there's no accountability for property owners, sometimes even after a tragedy.

MJ's grandmother and the rest of his family are still trying to make sense of what happened to him.

"He was just so sweet. He just was the sweetest baby," Cherie Franks said.

Milwaukee Fire Chief Mark Rohlfing says you need a smoke detector on every level of your home.

"If there's nothing else that people hear, it's that they have to take personal responsibility to make sure there's a working smoke detector in the place that they live,"said Mark Rohlfing, Milwaukee Fire Chief.

MFD says residents should have a smoke detector on every floor of their home.  The owner of a building is the person who is legally obligated to install a smoke detector, but if you rent, you cannot rely on the landlord. You have to install one yourself, or call the MFD hotline 414-286-8980. MFD will stall a smoke detector at your home for FREE.

In the next five years, MFD plans to knock on every single door in the city and make sure everyone has a working smoke detector in their home.

There is still not a smoke detector in the apartment where MJ died.