An apartment fire in Ozaukee County Tuesday left several families without a place to liven, and all their Christmas presents were destroyed.
"It was horrible," said Haley Church, a victim.
Church lived in the four-unit complex almost her entire life. Her mom now lives in one apartment and Haley and her two-year-old are in another. That's where the fire started.
"My whole bathroom was smokey and I looked right into where my faucet and stuff was by my bathtub and the entire wall was lit up and it was like there was flashlights and stuff in there. Everything was on fire," Church said.
The Saukville Fire Chief said the blaze started while someone was working on plumbing pipes.
"And then all of a sudden he noticed that smoke was coming out of the wall. He started pulling some insulation out, got some out looked up and noticed it had gotten farther up into the attic," said Chief Filly Schultz, Saukville Fire.
Because of the bitter cold, around 10 departments rotated to help put out the blaze.
"We have heavy clothes, plus we have a bus here that we ordered to keep the guys warm, we have ambulances sitting here so they can go in and warm up and we change crews all the time," Schultz said.
There are no injuries, but the chief said the building was a total loss. Janie Scott, who was inside at the time of the fire, knew it could have been a lot worse.
"Really thankful, yah, it was really scary," Scott said.
Even Haley, who lost her home and all her Christmas presents, was thankful her and her son are safe.
"I'm just grateful that I got him out more than anything that I realized that something was wrong," Church said.
Haley bought a new wardrobe for her son for Christmas and everything was lost. She is in need 2T and 3T clothes. If you want to donate email coreen.zell@tmj4.com.
