UPDATE: Milwaukee Police are now investigating a fire at a vacant home in the city’s Riverwest neighborhood late Monday as suspected arson.
Police say the fire appears to have been intentionally set, and unknown suspects are being sought.
Additionally, police indicated residents nearby were evacuated due to a gas leak at the site. We Energies spokesperson Brendan Conway tells WTMJ a heating unit fell into the home and damaged some of the home’s gas lines. No We Energies gas pipes or equipment was damaged or leaked.
An earlier version of this story has been left unedited to provide additional information
MILWAUKEE – An overnight fire at a vacant home in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood caused damage to multiple structures, leaving at least seven people without a place to stay.
Fire officials say the blaze broke out around 11:30pm Monday at the property near Bremen and Center. The flames extended high into the sky and caused damage to two neighboring structures.
A firefighter working the incident was injured and sent to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
We Energies crews were also on the scene as the fire caused impacts to both electric and natural gas services in the area.
“The fire damaged some of our electrical equipment, which caused an outage to a few homes in that area. That has since been addressed and power has been restored” said We Energies spokesperson Brendan Conway. “We were also asked by the fire department to turn off natural gas to the home where the fire was”.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
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