Citation likely for teen who started Fitchburg fire
FITCHBURG -- The teenager responsible for an apartment fire that caused more than $3 million in damage to the building and displaced 40 Fitchburg residents from their homes late Friday likely will receive a small fine for the accident.
Lt. Rob Rittenhouse of the Fitchburg Fire Department said a decision on whether to issue a ticket to the 14-year-old tenant -- who confessed to placing a small charcoal grill in the storage shed of a second-story apartment -- had not yet been made. The fine for mishandling burning materials is $169.
The teenager lived with one adult in the Fitchburg Springs apartment where the fire began.
Rittenhouse said the fact that the grill was being used on the second story is a state building code violation. State code indicates charcoal and propane grills cannot be used on second-story balconies or above. Charcoal grills on any level, including the ground level, also cannot be used or stored within 10 feet of a building. Electric grills are acceptable to use on balconies higher than the ground level.
"It should not have been up there," Rittenhouse said. "There is a good possibility citations will be written."
Rittenhouse said the blaze destroyed 15 of the building's 26 units and caused roughly $3.3 million in damage.
Gorman & Co., which owns the Fitchburg Springs apartment complex at 3321 Leopold Way, confirmed with the American Red Cross Badger Chapter on Sunday afternoon that residents displaced by the fire again will be allowed to stay at a local hotel or vacant units in the complex. This gesture is in addition to the two-night stay the company's owner, Gary Gorman, already has provided for displaced tenants to stay at one of two nearby hotels in Fitchburg. For these reasons, a shelter at Aldo Leopold Elementary School will not be needed to house the tenants who lived in an apartment building, as was believed earlier in the weekend.
As of Sunday afternoon, the local Red Cross chapter had been in contact with tenants from all but one of the apartments vacated late Friday night because of the fire. Those tenants had yet to return to Madison since the weekend's fire, according to a statement released by the local Red Cross.
Two of the building's units were vacant at the time of the fire. No one was injured in the blaze. Many of the people whose apartments were damaged visited the Red Cross service center Saturday afternoon.
"We give them the basics, but it's tough," said Dan Kehoe, a local Red Cross volunteer. "A lot of these people didn't have insurance."
Residents of the surrounding neighborhood gathered to assess the damage roughly 24 hours after the fire had been contained early Saturday morning. The fire burned through half of the roof, leaving charred beams and the inside of numerous second-story apartments exposed to the hot afternoon air.
Greg Doby, who lives in an apartment with his wife and four children directly across from the partially destroyed complex, was among the first to hear the blast. He had returned from a family trip to Nashville and was talking with neighbors.
"Then all of a sudden ... bang. It just blew open the door (of the storage shed), and flames came pouring out," Doby said. "My son and I started running and knocking on doors to let everyone know it was real, and they needed to get out."
Donations for the fire victims can be sent to the local American Red Cross Badger Chapter, 4860 Sheboygan Ave., Madison, WI 53705.
Jessica VanEgeren
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No one was injured in a Friday fire that caused about $3.3 million in damage at the Fitchburg Spring Apartments.
