MILWAUKEE — When looking out her window, Kelly Bentley can see straight through her neighbor’s house but not because the windows are open.
There are gaping holes in the vacant home’s roof, created by the Milwaukee Fire Department.
“They were on the roof making big holes,” Bentley said. “I’m like, what are they doing?”
For months now, Bentley says MFD has been at the home many times. There hasn’t been an emergency, but they are there for practice.
“To be able to train in the as-built environment is crucial,” Chief Aaron Lipski said. “To be able to work inside an actual home is of tremendous benefit.”
Training on homes like this affords the department a near real-life scenario, both inside and out.
"Having space on either side is nice but it's not realistic to our working environment," Lipski said. "There are techniques and things that you just can practice better in that environment. We need to learn how to throw ladders up against the gutter line and then carry roof ladders up that ladder sometimes with gutters that are almost overlapping. It's extremely difficult and extremely different than the very baseline training scenarios I would do out of the training academy."
Lipski says these types of trainings are held during daylight hours and crews make sure they clean up any mess they may make. The Department of Neighborhood Services and Department of City Development give the department approval to practice on these homes. For this home on North 26th Street, crews have been at the home since June of 2022, cutting holes in the roof among other firefighting techniques they’ve practiced.
“There’s definitely a commonsense approach to when we go out and do these things,” Lipski said. “If we are gaining access via a door or window that was boarded up, we re-secure that board up so that we’re leaving a property that’s secure.”
The home has many plywood boards along the bottom floor, including the city’s signature green-colored door on the front door. A trademark you’ll see on most vacant homes in the city to keep people from getting inside.
However, when taking a bird’s eye view, the same attention was not paid to the roof.
“If you go and look at the roof, it looks like a series of long rectangular holes or vertical cuts on one or both of the sides of that roof,” Lipski said. “Full disclosure, we’ve never looked at re-securing a roof, post-cut.”
But for a home to be utilized in this way for over a year before being razed, Lipski says that’s a DNS issue.
“We maintain a catalog as long as those buildings are standing and ensure that what we’re doing is in line with whatever those recommendations are,” Lipski said. “We’re not causing more problems. We work very collaboratively with DNS and DCD to make sure that we’re functioning within our agreed-upon guidelines for what we will or won’t do in the buildings or on the building. I don’t know what their schedule is for demolition.”
But Bentley says, while the roof openings aren’t accessible to humans, it’s become a haven for something else of the four-legged variety.
“It’s a raccoon,” Bentley said.
Not just one raccoon, but at least six, Bentley says. With the recent snowfall, tiny footprints can be seen on the roof, going from the edges to the gaping holes in the roof, before disappearing inside.
But don’t let the size of those footprints fool you. Bentley says this is a serious safety concern for her family.
“The city came out and caught a 40-pound raccoon in the house,” Bentley said. “I’m afraid to let my dogs outside. My granddaughter came in the house and was like, ‘Grannie, there’s an animal after me.’ She just says they’re big and ugly and they bite.”
Bentley shared several stories of just how brazen these raccoons are. One hung from the gutter on the house, snapping part of it off. Another, was right outside of her door, eating from a bowl of cat food she left out.
“The raccoon was there and he was eating and wouldn’t stop,” Bentley said. “Eating with both hands and he was looking at me. I’m like, ok, you can have that. I’m not going to bother you. After he ate, he climbed over the fence and left.”
She’s since stopped leaving food out.
Above her backdoor, Bentley has a flood light with a motion sensor. In years past, it was meant as a safety deterrent to keep people away from her home. Now, it’s a deterrent for her and her dogs to go outside.
“If I come to the door and the light’s on, that means something is in my yard,” Bentley said. “Which is usually raccoons.”
DNS was not available for an interview but says there are 190 homes set for demolition in the city. The delays in demolishing homes like this can be attributed to a lack of contractors bidding on demolitions and the shear volume of properties. The Department also cites post-COVID recovery for the construction industry as an issue. The full statement from the Department is below:
“We understand the concerns of this resident and those of other community members regarding blighted properties. Our mission continues to support our community’s goals of building safe and healthy neighborhoods. Certainly, there are many factors that cause delay in razing a property, such as a limited number of contractors bidding on demolitions, the construction industry’s post-COVID recovery and volume of properties to be demolished. That is why Mayor Johnson not only has launched his “Raze and Revive” initiative, but has challenged all city departments to find new creative solutions so we can best serve our residents. We are excited to be part of an interdepartmental collaboration with the Department of Public Works and other departments to raze blighted properties in 2024, with this property being among the first to be demolished. We look forward to continue these efforts in teamwork to support all of Milwaukee.”
You don’t need to look farther than Bentley’s block for how prevalent this issue is. No more than five houses down, there’s another home with similar holes in its roof, arguably in worse condition than the home next to her. This home is also being used for firefighter practice.
“That’s a lot,” Bentley said. “Pick another spot for that. I understand you have to work too, but do it somewhere where it’s safe for everybody.”
“We want to be good partners with the people that live in the neighborhood,” Lipski said. “I’m glad somebody has brought it to our attention because it’s something that we can put a little more emphasis on moving forward to make sure we’re not creating a disruption.”
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