One person found dead after fire at West Allis assisted living facility

WEST ALLIS (WITI) -- The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office on Thursday, February 6th responded to a fatality caused by a fire at 11515 W. Cleveland Ave. in West Allis. That's the location of the Heritage House senior living complex.

The call for the fire came in just before 3:30 p.m. Fire personnel reported an active fire, and a victim was found deceased inside an apartment from an unknown cause.

The Heritage House has 142 units for assisted living.

West Allis police had the entire property taped up on Thursday night.

FOX6 News spoke with some women whose father lives in the building. They say most people were back in their units on Thursday night -- though they say you can smell smoke in the hallways.

They say their sister Kathy was inside the building at the time of the evacuation and pitched in.

"Apparently they evacuated the entire building and Kathy was kind of directing people getting people in various cars, and then they let people back in the B and C wing where our dad lives," Dawn Hinz said.

Those women of course say they were grateful no one else was hurt, and they were told the fire was contained mostly to one unit.

Restoration crews were already inside the building on Thursday night, cleaning up.

The person killed in the fire has not been identified. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.