One person is dead and a Milwaukee firefighter was injured in a fire early Sunday morning.
Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski, in a post on X, wrote that the fire broke out at a home in the 2400 block of South 8th Street. In the post, Lipski confirmed a person had died and a Milwaukee firefighter was "severely burned" in the fire.
@MilFireDept will have briefing RE: S. 8th Street fire fatality w/ firefighter severely burned in rescue attempt. This will be at Columbia-St. Mary’s at a time TBD. Family members & firefighting brothers & sisters are here with him. He is in the care of the best burn unit around.
— Aaron Lipski (@alipski1) April 14, 2024
Lipski, writing on X, said "family members & firefighting brothers & sisters are here" with the injured firefighter at Ascension Columbia St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee.
In a media briefing held by The Milwaukee Fire Department Sunday morning, Chief Lipski said that the deadly fire on South 8th Street was not the only fire happening on Sunday morning. Simultaneously there was a fire on Milwaukee's North side that left a firefighter with minor injuries. They were treated and released from the hospital.
At 4:49 Sunday morning Milwaukee Fire dispatchers received a call that an entire house was on fire. Soon after the first call dispatchers received multiple calls that another house had caught fire.
Milwaukee Fire battalion chief got to the scene on South 8th Street at 4:54 am. Heavy operations and rescue teams were also sent to the scene.
After being notified that there were people inside the building firefighters entered in hopes of rescuing them.
Firefighters were able to successfully retrieve one person from the house. That person then informed firefighters that there was a person trapped upstairs.
The second person was visually located by firefighters. The fire moved into the second floor and trapped the firefighter.
After MAYDAY alerts from both the trapped firefighter and the commanding officer, the firefighter trapped in the building was saved but sustained heavy burns to 49 percent of his body.
Chief Lipski accredits the firefighter's survival to their extensive training.
There was one life claimed by the fire. Neighbors told TMJ
TMJ4s Tahleel Mohieldin is working to gather more information on this story.
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