Massive blaze guts Bayside apartment building; at least 14 people rescued

At least 14 people were rescued and dozens of others displaced early Saturday as a massive fire swept through a 62-unit apartment building in Bayside, North Shore Fire/Rescue said.

Police and firefighters responded to the blaze in the White Oaks apartment complex north of Brown Deer Road about 12:15 a.m. to find flames shooting from the structure.  It was quickly upgraded to a three-alarm blaze.

One woman who identified herself only as Katie said she and her boyfriend were awakened to firefighters "kicking down our door."

"We just put, like, any clothes on that we could find and grabbed our phones," she said.

"The whole entire hallway was filled with smoke. ... We could barely see. They were guiding us," she said. "There were no sprinklers or alarms going off."

Dramatic video from the scene shows flames shooting from the structure.

Police and firefighters went door to door to evacuate sleeping residents, authorities said. And when the smoke became too thick in the hallways, firefighters propped ladders up against the outdoor balconies to bring people to safety.

Three people, including a firefighter, suffered minor injuries.

"We are very lucky nobody died," Bayside Police Lt. Eric Miller said.

The cause remains under investigation. But authorities believe it is not suspicious and may have started on an upper-floor balcony.

North Shore Fire Chief Robert Whitaker said there were no sprinklers, except in the underground garage. And investigators are working to determine whether fire alarms in the hallways may have malfunctioned. Some residents said they did not hear them go off.

Firefighters struggled to get the blaze under control. The building's location on a private lane off North Port Washington Road just east of I-43 made it challenging to access. Firefighters had to lay 2,000 feet of hose to access a water main large enough. Authorities also shut down the northbound lanes of the highway, and trucks could be seen spraying water onto the structure from there.

The fire was the biggest in Whitaker's nine years as chief — partly because firefighters had to prioritize the rescues, and partly because, once the fire hit the attic, it spread rapidly across the L-shaped roof. 

Whitaker said the attic may not have had firestops, which are designed to keep fires contained. The burned roof collapsed into the third floor, which had visible fire damage Saturday afternoon.

"It had a significant head start," Whitaker said. "We ended up literally pulling people out of their apartments — we dedicated every resource to that."

By noon Saturday, crews were using a drone to locate remaining hotspots. Two streams of water sprayed intermittently. Whitaker thought firefighters would be there until nightfall.

Haakon Connelly, 28, noticed the air smelled like a campfire last night, but he thought maybe it was a fireplace. When he saw smoke in his bedroom, he walked onto his balcony and saw flames on a balcony below.

He pulled the fire alarm, rounded up one of his two cats and called 911. He watched from outside as the entire building went up in flames.

"I thought it was going to be a small thing," Connelly said as he stood outside the burned building Saturday afternoon. "I wasn't expecting this."

Connelly couldn't find his other cat, Nebbie, in the rush to get out. Now he and his fiancée, Bailee Hower, worry the cat died in the fire. Connelly and Hower are getting married in three months, and they do not know whether their wedding bands are safe.

A young family originally from India was eager Saturday afternoon to get back inside and check on their important paperwork, which included visa documents, diplomas, passports and birth certificates.

Pardeep Bhatia, 42, said his family thought it was a run-of-the-mill alarm, as the apartment building has experienced some other false calls. Bhatia didn't even bring his wallet with him when they evacuated.

Bhatia, his wife Samridhi Mahajan, 35, and their daughter Arna, 6, watched from the street as flames overtook the building. Within half an hour, everything was burned.

"We have nothing now, no documents, nothing. No license," Mahajan said. "We have totally no identity. That's what we're worrying about."

"We have to start from scratch. I don't know, it's a big mess," Mahajan added. 

Basic necessities like clean clothes are inside that apartment, but also meaningful memories.

"Everything from India, my mom — whatever she gifted me — it's inside the house," Mahajan said. 

Whitaker said the department was working on organizing trips inside the safe parts of the building to collect key personal items.

The Red Cross was on the scene and set up a shelter in the gymnasium at St. Eugene Catholic School in nearby Fox Point. And offers of help were pouring in from businesses and concerned residents. Some also brought food to the fire station and for workers on the scene.

A North Shore Nextdoor online site posted a letter from The Rev. Paul Hartmann of St. Eugene thanking those who had already stepped forward and advising others on how they could help. He said donations could be dropped off at the church at 7600 N. Port Washington Road.

"I know that there is at least one infant in diapers, two kids aged 7 & 8, and one teenage boy" in the shelter, the letter read. "When you have lost everything, everything is needed and appreciated."

Shana Beal, who manages the disaster program for the Red Cross, said 14 people were at the shelter as of about 10 a.m. Saturday. She would not allow a Journal Sentinel reporter to enter, saying residents were still in a state of shock and did not want to speak.

Katie, who spoke outside the school, said she and her boyfriend lost "many things money can't replace."

"My boyfriend's dad's ring was in there," she said. "We are definitely happy to be safe and that no one was hurt. We were scared, but also blessed."

Mike Johnson of the Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.