*UPDATE: Fire officials officially declared the cause of the fire as "undetermined."*
MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. — We are getting a closer look at the aftermath of a fiery blaze that ignited in Menomonee Falls.
15-acres of brush set fire right next to a rail line near Marcy and Mill Roads, causing thousands of customers to lose power, and neighbors to worry the fire might spread to their homes. TMJ4 News looked into what may have caused this to happen a second time in the same area.
“Last night if I went to my driveway and you looked out through here you could see the flames shooting up,” said Candy Luedtke. “The police department came around, knocked on every door.”
She was relieved the flames about a half-mile away, would not jump the tracks closer to her home and ignite a power station next door to her, “It’s a little concerning when you’re sitting here and you have the electric company.”
Nearly 3,000 We Energies customers lost power as several departments worked to contain the fire.
Village of Menomonee Falls Fire Inspector Mark Franzowiak says multiple fire departments used ATVs or worked on foot to get to this fire.
He says they will likely not be able to pinpoint the cause of the fire until later this week, but we do know dry cattails in this wet, marshy area ignited soon after a train had passed. They had to shut down the Union Pacific train line from about 5 p.m. when the fire began until early Wednesday morning to ensure the fire was put out.
Franzowiak says it is possible the sparks from the train wheels could have ignited this fire, but he still does not know for sure.
This was not the first brush fire to get out of control. 450 acres went up into flames less than two years ago. That is 30 times larger than Tuesday’s fire.
“If it got on the other side of the tracks here and made its way up to the north, yeah that's a good possibility, yep that's what we fought two years ago,” said Franzowiak.
In that case, smoke was reported more than four miles away, and caused at least 10 homes to be evacuated in a subdivision just west of Pilgrim Road.
Fire officials said at the time the cause, in that case, was likely from sparks flying off a passing train into this dry brush. Franzowiak says it's hard to say how we can all prevent this from happening again, as the area is mostly brushland.
A close call yet again that amazingly left no one hurt.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources tells us Union Pacific owns 25 feet of the land on each side of the track. We wanted to know of any fire mitigation efforts Union Pacific might do, so we reached out. A spokesperson says they are working with Menomonee Falls Fire Department to pinpoint an exact cause in Tuesday's fire, first.
If you ever spot a brush fire in your area, officials urge you to call 911 right away.
