No injuries reported in large fire at Oconto apartment building

OCONTO, Wis. (WBAY) – Everyone made it out safely and no injuries where reported when an apartment building in downtown Oconto caught fire.

The building houses three apartments and will likely be a total loss, according to crews at the scene. While the facade of the building facing Main Street remained mostly intact, the rear of the building showed the devastation of the fire.

Crews say they found a lot of smoke when they first arrived, with flames visible toward the back of the building.

Nine departments were called out to help.

Oconto Fire & Rescue Chief Josh Bostedt tells Action 2 News the building’s solid tin roof did not help with firefighting efforts, as it contained the flames in the attic with no way to extinguish them from above.

“Being the old building, it’s the balloon frame construction, so this traveled up the wall space rather quickly and got up into the attic, and we’re struggling because there’s multiple layers of roofing material and a solid tin roof up above,” Chief Bostedt said.

Eventually spots became hot enough that the roof started to burn through, giving crews an access point.

Chief Bostedt spoke to us live on Action 2 News This Morning.

Firefighters were also focused on making sure the fire stayed out of a neighboring building, which is roughly six inches away from the apartment building.

Crews were successful in keeping the flames to the original building but did start to notice smoke and water damage to the nearby structure.

Five people were living in the apartments. The Red Cross has been contacted to help everyone who lost their homes.

Bostedt says his department was in contact with the city’s Water Utility to ensure crews had enough water to put out the flames while also ensuring the city did not run short of water.

“We have our city water department on board. They’re monitoring our water levels here in the city to make sure that we have a sufficient amount of water. Contacted them early on. They had responded right out to the water treatment plant, made sure we had additional wells going and making sure that we did not run short or run the city short of water,” Bostedt said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

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