At least a dozen firefighters hurt in Milwaukee. Injuries reported minor in 4-alarm house fire.
Reports from yesterday evening’s four-alarm house fire on Milwaukee’s south side indicate anywhere from 12 to 15 firefighters were hurt. A few firefighters suffered burns, but all injuries are reported to be relatively minor.
The fire, on a hot, muggy night destroyed a vacant house and spread to a second mult-family home displacing 12 people. Here are excerpts from an article by the Journal-Sentinel’s Jesse Garza:
About 100 firefighters responded to the fire, along with at least 16 ladder trucks and engines and five paramedic units, according to Salvatore Santoro Jr., 4th battalion fire chief.
Firefighters worked in rotations, fighting the blaze for 15 minutes and then taking half-hour breaks to rest and rehydrate, Santoro said.
Some of the minor injuries suffered were related to firefighters falling off water-laden equipment, he said. While the dozen firefighters were taken to local hospitals, none of the injuries appeared to be life threatening, he said.
“It was mostly bumps, bruises, scrapes and strains, but the heat certainly didn’t help,” Santoro said.
The fire was under control by late Friday night. Water used to extinguish the flames came from as far as two blocks away, Santoro said. Smoke hung over the entire neighborhood.
NOTE: In its story WTMJ-TV reported, “Scanner traffic indicates the firefighters suffered everything from second degree burns to dehydration. One of them may have been taken to a trauma center after a roof collapsed on him.” I know I have been out of the news business for a whole week and I am sure a lot has changed since then, but when did it become okay for a TV news operation to report information from the scanner that hasn’t been confirmed. Isn’t unconfirmed information just a rumor?
