'Very difficult to operate': Crews battle Bay View house fire in cold temps

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) — A fire destroyed a house in Bay View Thursday morning, and it was a freezing fight for the first responders.

The Milwaukee Fire Department was called around 8 a.m. to a fire at a two-unit house on S. Kinnickinnic Avenue near S. Fulton Street.

Cellphone video from a neighbor shows flames taking over the basement.

Fire officials said those flames crawled up the outside of the building to the second floor.

"What we have to do in those situations is open up the walls, open up the window trim, door trim, anywhere that the fire could be hiding," said Deputy Chief Ron Firnrohr.

Thankfully, no one was inside the building when crews arrived.

Firnrohr said the cold and ice made firefighting difficult.

"The companies that go in to extinguish a fire, they're throwing large quantities of water around, then they come out and they're frozen," he explained. "It's miserable."

Due to the weather conditions, they called in extra trucks from Milwaukee and St. Francis for help.

Firefighters had to be very careful while using equipment like ground ladders and hoses.

"It's very difficult to operate. We want to do it safely. We don't want any of our people hurt," Firnrohr said.

Firefighters were able to kill the flames quickly and took more than two hours to make sure the fire and smoke were completely out throughout the structure.

"One spark, one ember, especially with this slight breeze that we have coming in, we could be back here later and we could have a much more serious fire," Firnrohr explained.

No firefighters or residents were hurt, but Firnrohr said they don't yet know how many people will be displaced because of the fire.

He said this building did not have any sprinklers, and he did not hear smoke alarms going off upon arrival.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.