Milwaukee U-Haul storage fire; second blaze sparks tenant concerns
Milwaukee U-Haul storage fire sparks tenant concerns
Tenants returned to the Walker’s Point U-Haul storage facility on Tuesday after the second fire in three months.
MILWAUKEE - Tenants are demanding answers after a second fire in nearly three months at a U-Haul storage facility in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood.
What we know:
Milwaukee firefighters responded to the two-alarm fire Monday night, April 6, near 1st and Lapham. Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski said the first call came in just after 8:30 p.m., and the fire was upgraded to a two-alarm response by 9 p.m.
U-Haul storage facility on S. 1st Street, Milwaukee
Crews arrived within three minutes. No injuries were reported among firefighters or bystanders.
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Lipski said the fire occurred in the same location as a January blaze that impacted about 400 of the facility’s roughly 1,200 storage units. When asked whether the fire appeared suspicious, Lipski said the cause remains under investigation.
U-Haul said approximately 25 storage units were damaged by the Monday evening fire.
Tenants returned Tuesday to assess the damage.
Local perspective:
"There was probably a half foot of water on the ground, so it does look like they did have to soak everything in order to get in; the windows were all broken," said Liz Kiesling.
Kiesling said she has a storage unit in Building D, which she said was impacted by the fire.
"I'm not sure if anything salvageable at this point," Kiesling said.
Tenants said they want answers following the second fire.
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"Yeah, we need to know what happened. Our insurance needs to know what happened, they have to be held liable," Kiesling said.
Tenants said they are still working through the damage while waiting for more information.
"You can't ever get that sort of thing back," Kiesling said.
What they're saying:
U-Haul provided the following statement:
"A 2-alarm fire broke out last night in building D. This is one of the self-storage buildings on the property. Approximately 25 storage units were damaged by the fire. The remaining first-floor units will have water, smoke or soot damage. Some units on the second, third and fourth floors may also have water, smoke or soot damage.
This was the same property that sustained a much larger fire in January. However, the fires are completely unrelated and occurred in different sections of the complex. The January fire began in building H.
The fire chief will need to confirm the separate causes of the two fires.
We are currently working on securing the building for our customers and getting power restored. Once this has been accomplished, we will reach out to all affected customers and coordinate a date and time for them to inspect their storage units. We will have staff on-site to assist with relocating belongings, cleaning, drying, and re-boxing items as needed. We expect to start scheduling customers on Thursday. We will be using contact information from each tenant’s contract. Tenants should log into their storage accounts and ensure that they have the correct phone, email and mailing address in our system."
U-Haul fire: Milwaukee firefighters battle storage facility flames again
Milwaukee firefighters responded to a two-alarm fire at a U-Haul facility near 1st and Lapham on Monday night, April 6, the same complex that burned in January, with no injuries reported.
The Source: FOX6 News had a crew on the scene of the fire on Monday and Tuesday, and also utilized prior coverage of the first fire.