Jim Lampe
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
Authorities believe charcoal grill may have caused massive (City of Milwaukee) south side fire that left mom and baby girl dead
Milwaukee Journal SentinelThe Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office identified the two victims in last week's south side fire as a 27-year-old mother and her 16-month old daughter.
The bodies of Maria Castillo Cortez and her daughter, Maria Chavez Castillo, were found in the rubble of a massive south side fire that started in one home and expanded to four last Wednesday in the 1900 block of South 19th Street. The fire could be seen from miles away and grew rapidly due to a gas leak and wind conditions.
According to the medical examiner's report released Tuesday, a preliminary investigation revealed that a tenant may have been using a charcoal grill on the back porch when the house caught fire.
Four structures on South 19th Street near the intersection with West Burnham Street were extensively damaged after a house fire expanded to three other structures. Three of the homes are "total losses," according to Battalion Chief Tom Sells.
Milwaukee Fire Department Assistant Chief DeWayne Smoots also said the wind played a role in the fire spreading and that the fire was upgraded to the three-alarm category within eight minutes of the departments arrival on the scene. Because of this, Smoots said there wasn't any time to enter the homes to try and save anyone.
"We didn't miss the bodies," Smoots said. "It was just so much fire and then the building was collapsing and there was no way for us, for me, to safely have my firefighters to go through the rubble."
Smoots said a fire fast enough and big enough to scorch four homes is highly uncommon in Milwaukee.
"It is extremely uncommon, in my 36 years I can tell you I've probably only seen it once or twice, not counting this one," he said.
