Just got this update from South Milwaukee Fire Chief Joe Knitter …
I thought I would bring you up to date on Milwaukee County’s involvement at the ongoing fire at the Echo Food Processing Plant in Burlington. First off, SMFD has not sent any apparatus to the scene.
At approximately 11:30 last night, I received a phone call from Deputy Chief Bill Rice of the Wauwatosa Fire Department in his role as the Southeast Wisconsin Regional Coordinator of the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System (MABAS). Deputy Chief Rice responds to either the Command Post or Communications Center on all MABAS alarms over the 3rd alarm level. As Vice-President of MABAS Division 107 (Milwaukee County), I was asked to begin efforts to coordinate the assembly and response of an Interdivisional Task Force (a combination of 3 fire engines, 2 ladder trucks, and two Fire Chiefs), to respond to the staging area in Burlington for a 6-hour operational period. I contacted our MABAS Dispatcher, the Wauwatosa Police/Fire Dispatch Center, and, according to our MABAS Box Cards, requested engines from Greendale, Wauwatosa, and the North Shore, ladder trucks from Greenfield and West Allis and Chief Officers from Greenfield and the North Shore. The Interdivisional Box Card also contains EMS units, which our paramedic unit would have been one of, but Burlington Fire decided that they did not need the EMS units. The Task Force units assembled at a pre-determined muster point at Oak Creek Fire station #3 and then responded to Burlington. As of 6:30 this morning, some of those units were being released and were returning to their respective communities.
While monitoring our mutual aid radio channel throughout the night, I was contacted once again by Deputy Chief Rice who was requesting three more Chief Officers to serve on the Incident Management Team at the incident. Chiefs from West Allis, Greendale and Hales Corners were called upon to respond.
As of this writing, most media outlets are reporting that this is an 8-alarm fire. In reality, it is a 5-alarm fire with approximately 10 special alarms for Interdivisional requests for Task Forces as far west as Dane County and down into Illinois. The fire is not yet under control and there will be much more work to be done. I would not be surprised if our division is called upon again sometime today to provide more resources.
I’ll keep you posted if and when I hear more.
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