MILWAUKEE — Firefighters in Milwaukee have responded to multiple fires within the last month at the Northridge Mall, as a legal battle continues over the property.
Chief Aaron Lipski said the fires at the vacant mall are putting a strain on the Milwaukee Fire Department.
He said when the Milwaukee Fire Department has to respond to a fire at Northridge Mall, it is forced to use double the amount of resources to put out the fire. For a full structure fire response, the department sends four fire trucks, two ladder companies, a heavy rescue company, a paramedic unit and three battalion chiefs.
Because of the size and condition of the mall, Lipski said the department upgraded to a two-alarm, which meant doubling the resources.
Lipski added this makes it more difficult to respond to other calls in the northwest side of the city.
“This is an enormous swath of the city right here that, for this recurring fire, just gets pulled from the mix. This is an enormous land mass. It’s highly populated,” said Lipski.
With four fires at the Northridge Mall in less than three weeks, Lipski said the firefighters are put at “tremendous” risk.
“It’s a building that is left to rot. That is ill secured, no security on premise. We have to saw a wall open to get into it to fight it safely for our own purposes,” Lipski said. “Nobody even shows up while we are at their building, putting fires out. Doesn’t that tell you something about the level of concern?”
Northridge Mall has been closed since 2003.
In 2019, the City of Milwaukee filed three raze orders against the building’s owner — Black Spruce Enterprise Group — to destroy the structure. However, the company is appealing it in court.
Lipski said he plans to be a part of the legal battle.
“It will be good to walk arm in arm with our other key city partners, like the Department of City Development, Department of Neighborhood Services, the police department, the mayor’s office and the city attorney’s office,” said Lipski. “We are going to attempt to push the responsibility for this back across the ledger where it belongs: To the property owner.”
A hearing is scheduled for this case in the Milwaukee County Circuit Court for Monday at 10 a.m. Lipski said he hopes this could be the start of something being done with the property.