Fire heavily damaged a south side Brookfield home on the afternoon of April 24, with high winds whipping flames to the property’s detached garage, charring it as well.
Emergency personnel from Brookfield police and fire departments responded to the blaze at 4301 Vernon Ave. just after 3:30 p.m. when they saw smoke billowing from the area near the intersection of Vernon and Shields avenues, a half block east of Brookfield’s main firehouse.
Lt. Jon Hultman was driving a fire engine back to the south side station from a training exercise on the north side of town when he saw the smoke, according to Fire Chief Patrick Lenzi.
Lenzi said he activated the alarm system and then drove with Hultman to the one-story raised ranch home, where they saw the rear wood deck ablaze.
“The fire in the rear deck area extended into the eaves of the detached garage and the eaves of the house,” Lenzi said. “The wind was pushing the fire very quick.”
Lenzi said that three family members, a mother and her son and daughter, were at home when the fire started and that all escaped injury. Family pets were also rescued from the home, Lenzi said.
A Brookfield police officer reported that he was on patrol in the 8900 block of Shields Avenue when he saw flames coming through the slats of a wood fence at 4301 Vernon Ave.
Opening the gate, he reported seeing a tan plastic garbage can on fire under the deck stairs.
In all, 15 emergency vehicles responded to the fire along with personnel from a dozen communities. Vehicles and personnel from three other communities, meanwhile, were called to the village to man the fire stations as Brookfield firefighters battled the flames.
It took 20 minutes for firefighters to get the flames under control, said Lenzi and the entire main floor of the home was damaged by fire, smoke and water. A portion of the roof on the east side of the house collapsed. The upper portion of the garage also sustained heavy fire damage.
Lenzi said the fire appears to have started in the vicinity of the raised deck attached to the rear of the house, but that the exact cause of the blaze was still under investigation.
“I can’t comment on the circumstances at this time,” Lenzi said.
Firefighters and investigators remained on the scene until 7 p.m. The home suffered structural damage as a result of the fire and is not habitable, Lenzi said.
Two years ago, in April 2006, the home directly south of 4301 Vernon Ave. sustained major damage as the result of a fire.
In that incident, the Brookfield Fire Department determined that the fire was started under that home’s raised rear deck by a juvenile playing with matches.