Firefighter injured during Milwaukee church fire, neighbors say church was decades-old neighborhood landmark

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- A firefighter was injured Wednesday morning, June 17, while battling a fire at an abandoned church on Milwaukee’s north side.

Firefighters were called just after 6 a.m. to the area near 26th Street and Auer Avenue, where they found smoke pouring from a boarded-up church. Crews said the fire was already burning in the basement when they arrived, and firefighters had to force entry with axes.

Inside, conditions became dangerous when a firefighter fell through stairs into the basement, the Milwaukee Fire Department said. He was able to get out on his own but was taken to a hospital with injuries.

Nicole Winters, a nearby resident, said, “It was sad to hear because that church has been there forever. It's been there since the early 70s. It’s kind of a landmark of this neighborhood.”

Winters also said neighbors were frustrated the building had remained vacant.

“It’s a really big building and it could've been used for many things, the space is there, but nothing happened with it,” she said.

Fire officials said the cause of the fire remains under investigation.