MILWAUKEE — A 9-year-old girl died and an elderly woman is in critical condition after an apartment fire near 76th and Brown Deer Saturday morning.
On Monday, the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office identified the girl who died as 9-year-old Aria Jacque. An earlier version of this story said the Milwaukee Fire Department (MFD) reported the girl as 10 years old.
MFD said it responded to reports of a fire at 8520 N. Servite Drive at around 11:27 a.m.
Crews arrived minutes later to find smoke coming out of the second floor of a two-story, eight-unit apartment building.
“When I saw the real fire, I’m saying this is serious,” Velma Moore, a neighbor, exclaimed. A neighbor got her out of her apartment. “I sat out there and I cried. I was telling them to look for the baby girl.”
When dispatchers learned there may be someone trapped inside, the crews made an interior attack.
They found an elderly woman and a child trapped on the second floor. Both victims received medical attention immediately from medics with the Milwaukee Fire Department.
The girl was taken to Children’s Wisconsin, where she died from her injuries, according to the fire department.
The elderly woman was transported to Froedert Hospital and is in critical condition.
People in the area said this neighborhood is like a family.
“No Thanksgiving dinner. No Christmas. Now they’re all displaced. It kind of chokes you up,” Rudy Dennison, a resident of nearly 20 years, said.
According to a press release from MFD, crews pushed “against the heat and extreme hoarding conditions.”
According to the U.S. Fire Administration, hoarding makes it more difficult for firefighters to get into a home to fight fire and search for occupants.
MFD said they are trying to determine whether or not smoke alarms were sounding during the incident. The fire was brought under control at 11:53 a.m.
The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.
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