Child dies, woman injured in Milwaukee apartment fire

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The Milwaukee Fire Department says a child is dead and a woman severely hurt after being pulled from an apartment complex on Monday, July 14. The child was identified by the medical examiner's office as 4-year-old Xiomara Jermino. 

MFD says they responded to the fire at 31st and Wells around 11 a.m.

Fire crews arrived within four minutes and found flames from the front of the first floor.

Most people were self-evacuating, but not from the apartment where the fire started.

A resident told us one man could hear the child inside the first-floor unit, but he could not get the door open. A neighbor said the family had child-proofed their unit.

Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski confirmed it was difficult for firefighters to get into that unit.

He said, "Immediately upon entering, a short ways inside the door, they found an adult victim who they removed from the building. Immediately after that, because they work as a team, they found a child victim. Immediately removed them from the building."

Despite blinding smoke and heat, they still got the unconscious woman and child out within two minutes of arriving.

Lipski added, "The people we brought out were completely unconscious. And had suffered serious effects of smoke inhalation."

Crews transported the child to Children's Wisconsin. The woman, believed to be the child's mother, was taken to Ascension Columbia St. Mary's along North Ave.

Lipski said, "To pull that off, especially with that forceable entry problem, absolute kudos to the entire… everybody here contributed to this."

A neighbor we spoke with got choked up when she learned the child had died.

She told us the little girl was about six years old, and her mother is the woman who remains hospitalized.

The injured woman's husband was at work. The neighbor we spoke with had to call him to tell him about the fire.

Fire crews investigated the scene for several hours.

After they left, a construction team boarded up the windows.

Residents moved out what they could before the door was boarded up and the building secured.

But one person told us there is no way she's moving her family back into the building if or when it's even safe to do so.

She told us she's made numerous complaints about cockroaches and rats in the building, and outdated wiring, but she said she's been ignored by her landlord.

She showed us her phone as she explained earlier that day -before the fire- she had called the city's department of neighborhood services with a complaint.

City property records show the owner of the building is Berrada Properties.

But she also said her rent was raised after she filed a complaint, so she declined to speak on camera out of fear of retribution.

An email to Berrada Properties with specific questions and a request for comment was not returned.

There were working smoke detectors in the building, but no sprinklers, something Chief Lipski has repeatedly said saves lives.

Some fire crews carry what are called "cyanokits" with them, which is an injection that helps combat cyanide poisoning. Lipski said they used them at the fire Monday.

The Red Cross is helping seven families find a place to stay. They're also providing some financial help.

Officials do not believe the building is a total loss.