'I had 30 seconds': Fire victim recounts neighbor's heroic actions after fire spreads to 2 homes on upper east side
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Six people had to escape fire that destroyed two houses early Tuesday, May 5 on Milwaukee's upper east side. Witness videos showed massive flames as the fire spread to both buildings before firefighters could contain it, according to the Milwaukee Fire Department.
One of the residents credited a woman with helping everyone escape the fire. That woman told CBS 58 she was the first to notice the fire and simply did what was right.
Milwaukee fire officials said crews arrived around 12:44 a.m. Tuesday, and they found one home fully engulfed with fire. The flames spread to the neighboring house to the south.
First responders from both the Milwaukee Fire Department and North Shore Fire/Rescue responded to the homes near the intersection of N. Newhall Street and E. Newport Avenue.
Cassandra Foye said she was staying with her boyfriend, who lived with a roommate in the lower unit of the duplex. Foy said she went to use the restroom and noticed the fire beginning to spread in the living room.
She alerted her boyfriend, who was sleeping on the couch, then woke up his roommate, whose father owns the house.
"The girlfriend downstairs was screaming, 'Fire! Fire! Follow my voice.' That's what saved them," the property owner, Jim McGuigan, said.
Foye said she also alerted the neighbors next door, then tried to help the two tenants of the upstairs unit escape.
Payton Murphy said by the time she noticed the fire, it was already raging in the living room.
"I just remember vividly watching my couch go up in flames and watching the window behind it break," she said.
Murphy, a film major at UW-Milwaukee, said she and her roommate knew the only way out was a rear stairwell, but the smoke was heavy and they couldn't really see.
Foye said she stood in the stairwell and called for the two young women upstairs to follow the sound of her voice and reach out for her hands.
"I opened this back door," Foye recalled. "And then smoke just pelts me."
The two women upstairs made it to safety. Murphy said first responders considered their survival something of a miracle.
"Thirty seconds. I had 30 seconds. I would not have made it out," Murphy said. "The cop that took me down said she's never seen everybody survive a house fire like this."
Murphy's parents came down from Appleton to be with her. They said she and her roommate will have places to stay. McGuigan said his son and his roommate also have places where they can stay.
CBS 58 cameras captured the moment Murphy's father shared a tearful embrace with Foye.
Fire officials said one person was taken to a hospital as a precaution and several others were checked out at the scene but declined being taken to a hospital. No firefighters were injured.
MFD officials added the cause and origin of the fire were still under investigation.
The initial call reporting the fire noted pallets burning between the two houses, but McGuigan and Murphy said they weren't familiar with any pallets being there and maintained that had nothing to do with the fire starting.
Foye said multiple first responders told her she was a hero for how she handled the situation. A dental hygienist by day, Foye said her medical background may have helped her keep calm and communicate effectively.
She added she wasn't quite comfortable with the label of "hero," noting she hadn't performed CPR on anyone.
"I'm so grateful, forever grateful that everybody's OK," Foye said. "I can live with myself knowing everyone's OK."