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Fort Fire Chief Gives Fire Update

During the Fort Atkinson City Council meeting on Tuesday night, Fire Chief Daryl Rausch gave a report on last week’s warehouse fire on Oak Street. He began by expressing his appreciation for all involved in the efforts. This included 205 firefighters from 48 different stations in addition to their own forces. He also stated that volunteers have been very important, having responded to 20 calls in the last week. He also joked that he basically shut down the city’s public works and parks department, because the majority of their staff were being used to follow up on the fire.


Chief Rausch stated that the warehouse that caught fire burned for 96 hours before it could be put out. It was found that the sprinkler system inside the warehouse had been rendered useless due to a broken water main, which also wasted quite a bit of the water being used to fight it. In the end, the firefighters used about 3.2 million gallons of water to extinguish the warehouse.


While battling the fire, there were three injuries, with two of them being heat related. Of those two, one of them were treated at the scene. The third injury, however, was a life-threatening cut sustained by one of the firefighters. He was taken to a local hospital to be stabilized, then transferred to the UW Hospital for surgery. He is currently taking time to heal at home and is expected to make a full recovery.


Chief Rausch then expressed his thanks to the community for the support received both during and in the aftermath of the fire, recounting all the food, water, and ice donated and delivered to the site to keep everyone going.


In response to citizen comments regarding the cause of the fire, Chief Rausch stated that it is highly unlikely that a definitive cause of the fire will be found. This is because when a fire of this magnitude occurs, it tends to destroy any evidence of a cause. However, it was stated that the overall investigation on the incident is currently ongoing, and more information will hopefully be available to the public in about 30 days.


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