Family and pets rescued from Greenfield apartment fire, 15 left homeless

 

GREENFIELD, Wis. (CBS 58) -- A family who narrowly escaped their burning apartment is thanking the Greenfield Fire Department for their lives and for the lives of their beloved pets at the apartment building near 61st and Cold Spring.

The structure's still intact, but the inside's totally devastated. We spoke with a father and daughter whom firefighters helped climb out a second-floor window and down a ladder.

Getting down this ladder physically was difficult for Chuck Stermlieb and his daughter Sophia, but the emotional toll was high too, because they had to leave behind their two guinea pigs, who are very much part of their family: Smores and Love Bug.

"We thought maybe they died of smoke inhalation, but they survived. We thought we heard them yelping for us even though we were out; turns out here they are," said Chuck and Sophia Stermlieb.

An hour after the dad and daughter were rescued from smoke so thick they couldn't see a thing, a firefighter delivered the happy news in a box - it's Love Bug and Smores, alive.

We asked, "How much does this mean to you?"

"It means a lot to us. I mean, it means a lot to my sister Brittney because they were her guinea pigs, and to bring them home to her, it means a lot to me," said Sophia Stermlieb.

The fire call came in just after 2:30 p.m., as residents were rushing to safety, including a Nigerian family who moved in just yesterday.

"It's terrifying just knowing what happened and what could happen, and just everybody that it's affected. I know a lot of kids live here; there are 14, and it's almost like a family," said Danielle Kossow, a neighbor.

"It's one of the most tense situations you can have on the job, and our goal is to train as much as we can where we don't get that adrenaline rush, where we come on scene and we do our job," said Chief Tom Konieczka, Greenfield Fire Department.

In addition, the heat of the day provided an extra challenge for firefighters. One suffered a minor injury.

"They arrived to fire conditions on the first and second floor, multiple apartments on fire with multiple rescues, people hanging out of the windows; the initial crews threw ladders, removed victims from those windows," said Chief Konieczka.

The fire chief tells us they ended up transporting two residents to the hospital. Their conditions are unknown right now, and a total of 15 people who live here are homeless now. The Red Cross is reportedly providing assistance.

The cause of the fire is unknown for now.