MILWAUKEE — A fire at a vacant property on Milwaukee's north side displaced several families Wednesday morning after flames spread from one home to two others nearby.
The fire broke out around 5 a.m. on North 20th Street near Auer Avenue. A deputy fire chief said the vacant home caught fire first, and the flames then spread to the houses on both sides. No one was injured.
Rhonda Moss is a landlord of one of the damaged properties. Her partner's family has owned one of the neighboring homes since 1993.
"It's painful, cause like all the memories, and you know, she was a first-time home owner, and this is what she chose. This is what she chose to raise her kids and her grandkids in," Moss said.
The home has been in her partner's family for decades and is currently rented out to tenants.
Watch: Vacant building fire displaces multiple families; landlord calls for stricter property oversight
Moss said she found out about the fire from tenants calling her early Wednesday morning.
"Woke up to like missed, like maybe 30 missed calls from my tenants. One of them let me know hey there's a fire, I think you need to come over," Moss said.
Moss said the damage to the rental property is severe.
"If you look in here, the ceiling open, water dripping everywhere," Moss said. "It is not livable. My tenants are trying to relinquish what they can and salvage what they can."
Despite the home being vacant at the time of the fire, city records do not list that address as a vacant property. Moss said the building had gone unsecured for an extended period before the fire.
"For a long time, it wasn't boarded up," Moss said. "Recently, they did, maybe a few months ago, board it up and tried to secure it."
City records show Back Bay Park LLC owns the vacant home.
State records show Back Bay Park LLC has an office in Milwaukee which is listed as a condo unit that is not publicly accessible. Records also show it has a principal office in Provo, Utah.
TMJ4 News tried calling all phone numbers associated with Back Bay Park LLC and its owners, but was unable to reach anyone and never received a call back.
Moss said she believes the fire raises serious concerns about how the city handles vacant properties.
"This house has been sitting here all this time, and nothing has transpired with it, and then all of a sudden boom this extreme fire like this, this caliber like this, it just seems really fishy to me," Moss said.
She is calling on the city to take a stronger approach to vacant property oversight.
"I would think that the city should probably get a little more stricter on those property owners of those vacant properties to make for sure that they are securing the properties and checking on those properties," Moss said.
Assistant Fire Chief Schuyler Belott told TMJ4 News fires in vacant structures give his crews a greater concern because the home could be in disrepair, condemned by the city, or boarded up. He said those factors make homes more secure than normal, given that windows and doors are likely boarded up, which makes fighting fires harder and more dangerous.
Belott said that despite the property being vacant, they always fight the fires as if someone is in the building and search for people.
Right now, Belott said, with no one being in the home, it brings suspicion, but the fire is actively being investigated by Milwaukee Fire and Milwaukee Police so they can determine the origin and cause of the fire.
This story was reported on-air by Jenna Rae and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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