OCONTO, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Everyone is safe after an apartment fire in Oconto.
The fire broke out around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday on Main Street.
Because of the size of the fire, nine departments responded.
Five people inside got out safely. They are being helped by the American Red Cross.
Officials say the fire was hard to contain because there were so many layers to the roof.
“Being that it’s an older building, it’s the old type it’s called blue frame construction, so there’s no fire stops in the walls. It is believed to have been a first floor fire but it got to the wall cavity, quickly grew all the way up to the top floor to the attic space, and once it hit the attic space it just kept migrating and coming across that attic space and when that ceiling had compromised and fell in we were unable to stay interior,” explained Oconto Fire chief Josh Bostedt.
As of Thursday morning, only Oconto was the only department on scene, putting out hot spots.
“Currently we’re on scene with just one aerial truck, just monitoring from above, adding extra water where it needs to be if we detect any heat from our thermal imaging cameras,” said Bostedt.
No firefighters were injured.
