The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

Fire scorches two houses

Fire sent two off-campus buildings, 2017 and 2023 W. Michigan St., ablaze Monday evening. No one was hurt in the fire that broke out in the homes of nine Marquette students at about 4 p.m., according to the Milwaukee Police Department.

The fire started in 2017 W. Michigan St., and within minutes spread to a house about five feet west at 2023 W. Michigan St. according to junior Jason Crichton, who lives in 2023.

The house at 2023, home to four Marquette students and one Milwaukee School of Engineering student, will be knocked down because of the severity of the damages and rebuilt, according to its residents. The amount of damage to 2017 was unknown.

The fire charred the east side of the 2017 house and the west side of its neighbor. At least one room on the second floor of the 2023 house was reduced to fried beams.

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“Everything was destroyed,” Crichton said.

According to Crichton and Milwaukee School of Engineering junior Kevin Anschutz, the fire apparently began in a ground floor room on the east side of the 2017 house.

“I heard the glass break and saw flames shooting through the window,” Anschutz said.

Three girls in the 2017 house ran to the 2023 house to alert their neighbors of the fire, Anschutz said. He was the only one in the 2023 house at the time. Within about three minutes of the girls knocking on the door of 2023, Anschutz saw the fire spread to his house, he said.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, according to the Milwaukee Police Department.

Senior John Dunn, who lives in the 2000 block of West Michigan Street., was walking east on Michigan when he spotted smoke coming from the homes.

“I couldn’t tell which house the flames were coming from,” he said. “It was both.”

He said that once the Milwaukee Fire Department began spraying water on the buildings, the flames were out in about five to 10 minutes.

“The gutters went falling off the house, debris was falling off the house,” Dunn said.

However, the houses were on fire for at least an hour, according to Anschutz and MPD officials. Before the firefighters doused the houses with water, they checked the buildings for people.

Some of the residents of 2023 were called to the house during the fire.

One of the residents “was coming back from a run and dropped to his knees and grabbed his head like he couldn’t believe it,” Dunn said.

Junior Paul Snyder, who lives on the 2100 block of West Michigan Street., said by the time MFD left, the buildings “looked pretty much gutted.”

Marquette officials have given all the students university meal plans and temporary housing and will help the students find permanent housing, said Ben Tracy, director of university communication.

Firefighters rescued a dog that was still in the 2023 house when they arrived, Chrichton said.

Five Marquette students — Crichton, seniors Ryan Jacobson, Greg Erickson and Jake Remitz — and Anschutz, a student at MSOE, lived in the 2023 house. Five female Marquette students lived in the 2017 house.

No one was injured in the fire.

Kim Kaiser contributed to this report.