Details from South Milwaukee Fire Chief Joe Knitter on the fire at 3410 Blakewood Ave. …
At 6:25 PM, South Milwaukee Police received a 9-1-1 report of a house fire at 3410 Blakewood Avenue. The caller reported there was smoke coming out of the rear patio door and the occupant was outside yelling for his dog to come out. Upon the arrival of SMFD, a confirmed house fire was transmitted and the alarm was upgraded to a Working Still, bringing in our mutual aid neighbors. The sole occupant was encountered out of the structure and reported no other occupants. Hoselines were stretched to the rear of the single-family structure and crews encountered a kitchen fire spreading to the cabinets and other furnishings in the immediate area. A quick knockdown of the fire was made and the remainder of the house was searched to confirm that there were no occupants unaccounted for. No other occupants were found and overhaul was conducted to assure the fire did not spread into the void spaces and attic. Extensive damage was done to the kitchen with moderate smoke damage to the rest of the house. The lone occupant was evaluated by EMS for smoke inhalation, but declined treatment and transport. No further injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation by SMFD.
South Milwaukee Blog 
Can anyone explain why four other departments showed up for this fire? There was a ladder truck from St Francis, as well as others from Oak Creek, Cudahy and Air Force General Mitchell Field. Overkill? I don’t get it. Not to mention the numerous extra people that showed up in their own cars and gear. I guess it makes me feel safe!
Gary, hopefully I can answer your question. House fires grow in size very quickly, and successfully stopping them or limiting their spread is very labor intensive, particularly in the earliest stages of the response. There are many tasks that need to be performed simultaneously and in a coordinated manner.
A typical fire response (with slight variations) in most cities consists of: four fire engines, two ladder trucks, one ambulance, two chiefs. Larger cities, like Milwaukee, are able to provide all of those resources on their own because they have many fire stations, fire companies (engines and trucks), and personnel. The smaller communities, such as South Milwaukee, do not have the advantage of being able to provide that many pieces of equipment and personnel from their own department. Therefore, the smaller communities participate in Mutual Aid agreements with the other communities nearby.
A typical fire response in South Milwaukee consists of the following: SMFD Engine, SMFD Truck, SMFD Paramedic Ambulance, Cudahy Engine, Oak Creek Engine, 128th Air Force Engine, St. Francis Truck. Chiefs from each of the communities listed above are requested, however typically one or two are not available at any given time.
By nature of the Mutual Aid system I described above, South Milwaukee also provides resources when those other communities have a working fire. This way, each of the communities can strive to provide a proper and timely working fire response to its citizens, something that none of them are capable of doing on their own.
Generally, the mutual aid communities’ firefighters are released from the scene as soon as possible, in order to allow them to return to protecting their own citizens. It is much better for everyone to request the help and then turn them around than it is to not request the help and end up behind the eight ball.
As far as the number of engines and trucks responding, South Milwaukee is right within the normal range you would see for a working fire in just about every community around. Hopefully this answers your question.