Fire in Milwaukee Suburb Kills Six People

Six people were killed in an early morning fire on Friday in a four-family apartment building in a suburb of Milwaukee, the authorities said. Shortly after 5 a.m., the authorities received reports of a fire in the village of Hartland, Wisc., Chief Torin J. Misko of the Hartland Police Department said at a news conference. Hartland has about 9,500 residents and is about 27 miles west of Milwaukee.

“This is an active criminal investigation by the Hartland Police Department,” Chief Misko said. It was not clear what had caused the fire or where it had originated in the building. Chief Misko did not give any indication that the fire was deliberately set.

“Any type of fire, when there’s fatalities involved, we want to be very careful with determining the cause,” he said at a later news conference. The police initially reported that seven people had died in the fire, based on reports from first responders.

Firefighters and police who arrived at the scene encountered what Chief Misko described as “a large amount of fire,” and rescued people from the apartment building and balconies. He did not know the ages of the victims or whether they lived in a particular unit. He said on Friday afternoon that the authorities were working on identifying the victims and notifying family members.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/21/us/wisconsin-hartland-apartment-fire-fatalities.html