MILWAUKEE — Crews with the Milwaukee Fire Department (MFD) are battling a three-alarm apartment fire near Sherman and Florist.
It is not yet known if anyone is injured or what caused the fire. MFD says at least 30 units are affected. The Red Cross says they are assisting.
Charred walls and a collapsed roof on the building paint a grim picture of how the quick-moving fire ripped through the apartment complex Thursday evening.
TMJ4's Mariam Mackar spoke to two residents who have lived in the building for a combined two decades. One man, Sidney Cooper, even saved his neighbor from the flames. He is a 17-year resident of the building.
"I saw smoke coming through my wall like 'what's going on?' Next thing, I heard windows busting from the heat," Cooper recalled.
He lives just floors below the unit where he believes the fire started.
"Next thing you know, all my friends came banging on my window. The dude upstairs, there's fire coming out his roof."
Cooper and his neighbors then ran up to make sure the man upstairs was okay. He says they broke down his door and got him out of the building safely.
Precilla Edwards has lived in the building on Sherman Blvd. for eight years. After seeing the flames firsthand, she says she's just happy to be alive.
"I'm relieved," said Edwards. "I'm thankful, I'm grateful that I'm still here to be able to talk about it. This has always been a fear of mine so seeing it happen in reality is just a lot. I broke down crying just watching the flames 'cause I was scared."
She's one of many forced to abandon everything they own to seek shelter from the flames Thursday night.
Cooper says knowing everyone is safe makes the sight of his neighbors' destroyed homes, just steps away from his own, a little easier to stomach.
"It look ugly, like I said, but we alive. Material things can be replaced, people can't," Cooper said.
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