'Went in my bedroom and it was all smoke:' Family escapes house fire near 31st and Villard
Updated: 5:58 p.m. on Sept. 18, 2020
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- It’s not how any mother would want to start their Friday morning.
“I woke up and I smelled smoke and I didn’t know where it was coming from, fifteen minutes later, I went in my bedroom and it was all smoke," Katie Carmody said.
She scrambled to get her children on the first floor out of the house. However, her 12-year-old son was upstairs and Carmody couldn't get to him.
“He jumped from his window to the roof of the porch, and he waited for the fire department to get him down”
Firefighters got the call around 5:30 this morning, that a home on the 5100 block of 31st street was on fire. Officials say a garbage cart caught fire and traveled onto the house. It took about 20 minutes for crews to get it under control.
Carmody watched as they put out the flames wondering how will she move forward.
“Why me? It’s traumatizing, I don’t know what we are going to do now. It’s all the kids clothes and everything," she said. “I am going to need help. I am shocked, sad, crying one minute , then fine the next minute."
Carmody says she’ll never forget this day and she has a message for everyone.
“Just have smoke alarms, lots of them with batteries," Carmody said.
Officials tell us one firefighter sustained burn injuries to his hand. The cause of the fire is undetermined.
------
Published: 7:38 a.m. on Sept. 18, 2020
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- A firefighter was taken to the hospital after being burned while responding to a fire on Friday, September 18.
Crews were called to the area near 31st and Villard early in the morning. Authorities say the fire was located on the second floor.
No one else was hurt.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.