MILWAUKEE — On Mother’s Day, a fire broke out inside the Highland Court Apartments in Milwaukee, killing five people.
Rhonda Smith is just one of the residents displaced by the fire. Like many of her neighbors, she is trying to figure out what to do now since she may not have access to the building for a week.
“Nobody’s helping,” said Smith. “Nobody’s doing anything, and we’re displaced.”
She and other residents are also voicing concerns about the lack of sprinklers in the building.
“If there ain’t no sprinklers in there, and this place has been there since 1960, somebody is dropping the ball,” said Arthur Woods, another displaced Highland Court Apartment resident.
The building was not required to have automatic sprinklers because it was built before 1974 and “grandfathered” into a previous building code.
On Wednesday, the Milwaukee Fire Department said that was a reason the fire was so deadly.
Scott Kobb is the business manager with Sprinkler Fitters Local 183. He said automatic sprinklers can easily prevent fires like the deadly Mother’s Day blaze.
“It’s 100% preventable,” said Kobb. “If that building had fire sprinklers, there would have been zero deaths and minimal injuries.”
Kobb works for the union that installs sprinkler systems. At his training center, he showed just how fast a fire can start, and how quickly sprinklers can stop it.
“The average call, I believe, is 10 to 15 minutes, and you can see by the demonstration we just did the sprinkler put the fire out within 20-30 seconds,” he said.
Only state lawmakers can change regulations that require older buildings to have sprinkler systems. However, Wisconsin lawmakers are unlikely to require landlords to install them in older buildings.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said such regulations would be an overreaction to the incident and raise rent prices.
“The last thing we want to do is to own a home or rent an apartment,” said Vos. “We have a great track record in Wisconsin and want to make sure people are safe, but we have to be careful to overreacting to a single or unfortunate incidents like this, which occur, but less and less likely over time.”
Milwaukee Alderman Bob Bauman represents the district where the apartment is located.
He said the City of Milwaukee’s legislative package that is used to lobby the legislature includes advocating for requiring sprinklers.
Bauman was critical of Vos’ stance.
“Well, he is a rental property owner, so he is well aware of the issue and the potential debate that could go on, and he would try to nip it in the bud,” said Bauman. “Basically [he’s] telling everyone, ‘Don’t even think about coming up here to lobby for changes, because we aren’t going to hear it.’”
For those that are left displaced by the fire, there is a more immediate concern as to what they should do now.
“We got to still figure out where we going to go,” said Smith. “I’m almost out of money. I’ve been paying for hotel rooms. I’ve been paying for hotel rooms for somewhere to stay.”