-By Bob Wade, DAT Night Team Leader/Supervisor — ARC of SE Wisconsin — Milwaukee, WI.

6:20pm — Friday, August 01, 2008:

I was just finishing up my dinner when I heard the call come across my police scanner. 

“Report of the back of a house on fire at 3079 N 32^nd St!” as the Milwaukee Fire Department (MFD) dispatcher filled out the assignment.”

“We’re going to need the Red Cross here,” I heard the battalion commander inform MFD Dispatch a few minutes later. 

That’s all I needed to hear.  I was out the door and on my way.

The Red Cross Duty Worker called me about a mile up the road and asked me to respond.  I started dialing up my teammates to do the same and arrived at the scene about 10 minutes later.

Before me was a 2-1/2 story wood-framed duplex and as I looked up at the back of the house I watched as the firemen ripped it apart around one of the upper bedroom windows.

“Thanks for responding so quickly,’ the Battalion Commander said to me at first contact.

An officer from the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) pointed the individual family members from the house out to me and I waited my turn to speak with them.  From listening in to the police officer’s interviews I was able to learn that a 15-yr old boy started the fire in his bedroom on the 2^nd floor.

I interviewed the family from the lower unit first.  The head-of-household, Deon, was disgusted by what had just occurred.  The Mom, Deon’s wife, was furious. 

“This boy said he had a dream about a week ago that the house was going to burn and I think he did this on purpose!  We’ve lived here 8 yrs and this family has only lived here 6 months and this is what we get!  They’ve been nothing but trouble since they moved in!”

I put out my hand and said, “Hello, my name is Bob.” And the mother said, “I’m sorry, I’m just so upset right now,” as she let out a small grin and shook my hand.

My teammates; Carey, Chuck, Sue, and Don arrived at the scene shortly thereafter and completed the interviews as Carey and I went into the home to do a damage assessment. 

We started on the first floor.  The only real harm done to that unit was water damage in the kitchen.  There was a steady stream of rust-colored water coming down right over the stove, into an overfilled pot.  Roaches were scurrying about on the walls as we walked into the back bedroom.

On the 2^nd floor the rear bedroom was completely gutted by the fire.  What hadn’t burned was water-logged and covered with debris and soot.  The window was gone, including its frame, and there was broken glass everywhere.

The battalion commander had informed us that the home was uninhabitable so we asked both families if they had alternate places to stay.  Neither did and they didn’t their own source of transportation to get anywhere.

Chuck started calling the hotels, and as suspected, no one had their normal rooms available for us, or any rooms at all.  The Hospitality Inn said they only had suites left, which they would give to us for only $65.00 per night.  That was a great price!

I called the Supervisor, Jan, and we discussed the situation, both agreeing that we would have to go with the suite option at the Hospitality Inn.

Between both families we had 12 people–7 in the lower and 5 in the upper–and would need four rooms in all.

While most of my teammates and I were sitting in the van; making phone calls, filling out forms and gathering up supplies for the families, the fire and police personnel finished up their own work and departed the scene.

I was on the phone with the Duty Worker, Kurt, having him authorize the Client Assistance Cards.

A few of the kids from the house and their friends had gathered on the sidewalk, just to the right of the van, within my view from the driver’s seat.

The 15-yr old boy, who apparently had started the fire, was on his bike and said something to the 16-yr old girl from the lower unit.  It didn’t take but a second for her to go off on him, screaming out a tirade of words of which I could not make out.

The boy got off of his bike and set himself into a ‘tough-guy’ like stance; back arched, shoulder’s back and chest out, as if to say, “How dare you talk to me that way!”

The boy, with about three of his friends behind him, took a few steps toward the girl and before you knew it, a man came racing up towards him from the front of the house, made a ‘B-line” right for him, did a full pull-back of his right arm and punched him with extreme force straight-up into his face!

The boy went down and face first into the sidewalk. 

Here I am, sitting on the phone with the Duty Worker, reading off credit card numbers and all of this is going on right in front of us, in broad daylight.

There are no police officers at the scene anymore to do anything about it.

Just then, I hear my teammate Carey yell out, “Gun!!…That kid has a gun!!” 

One of the boys in the group was pulling up the back of his shirt, reaching for something with his right hand.  It looked as if he had a gun!

I turned towards the back of the van, where my teammate Sue was, and asked her to call 911. 

Kurt, the Duty Worker on the phone with me, asked if I’d like him to call 911 for us. 

“Sue’s got it,” I reply.

“Get everyone in the van!” I yell out. 

“Where’s Chuck?” I ask.

“He’s talking to the family in the front of the house,” someone says.

I put my mouth to my walkie-talkie, “This is 5420…Chuck, come back to the van…get back to the van immediately!!” 

No answer.

Don ran over to the front of the house and brought Chuck back.

All of this occurred within seconds, but it seemed like forever.

The boy, who’s now face down on the sidewalk, picks himself up, with blood pouring out from his nose like a waterfall, walks over to where his mother is sitting on the sidewalk stairs, which go up to their house, right next to the open doors of the van.

A police officer on a motorcycle arrives at the scene while Sue is still on the phone with the 911 Dispatcher.

I can tell that the boy was trying so hard not to break down and cry in front of his friends, but did so when his Mom puts her arms around him.

We get him into the van and Sue places a cold bottle of water gently against his nose. 

Thankfully, the bleeding seemed to have stopped.

It wasn’t until just before a Meda-Care ambulance arrived and began checking the boy over that I realized that I still had my cell phone up against my ear with Kurt, the Duty Worker, on the other end.

“OK…Everything is back to normal now.  Where were we?” I ask him, and we finish the authorization process of the C.A.C’s.

The kids, whom were with our 15-yr old client, ran up the street, then came back a few minutes later.  No gun was ever actually displayed, and I suspected that the one boy ran back to his house to get rid of it, knowing that the police would arrest him if they found it on him.

Additional police officers arrived at the scene and I told one of them that we saw the entire incident.  He wrote down my name, phone number, and address, as I told him what I saw.

Chuck tells me that the adult who punched the 15-yr old had been sitting on the front steps to the house and had been drinking from a small bottle of Whiskey, or something, before the incident occurred. 

An MPD officer informed us that they were calling in the “Sensitive Crimes Unit,” due to the fact that a child had been assaulted by an adult.

This adult, who had punched the boy, had disappeared from our site after punching him.  I was later informed that he had been arrested at the scene.

My teammates and I finished up our work there and headed on home.

We may have gotten lucky at this one.  No one got shot and everyone left the scene intact.

I think we all were shaking in our fire boots for a moment there.

Filed under: Disaster Response, Volunteers