Lightning Strike Sets Hillcrest Apartments Ablaze: Report

WAUKESHA, WI — Residents at the Hillcrest Apartments are picking up the pieces after a fire destroyed their apartment building during a rain storm in the early-morning hours on Friday.

Fire officials say the fire likely started because of a lightning strike. From there, the flames spread, decimating the top roof and top floor of the building.

At least one person was rescued, and firefighters worked for several hours to quell the blaze.

"It was a loud boom. It sounded like a bomb really. It even shook the apartment over here," Neko Ebbott said in a WISN-TV report. "At first the flames weren't showing, then out of no where it erupted. It was crazy."

Volunteers from the American Red Cross have opened a shelter for residents who were displaced after the fire. Residents can go to Elmbrook Church, 777 S. Barker Road, Brookfield, for compassion, food, a place to sleep and more. The shelter is located in the gym; enter through the south side of the church.

The damage was extensive. Video footage recorded by FOX 6 shows the totality of the fire's aftermath: an entire section of the apartment's roof is gone, exposing numerous units on the building's top floor.

At 11:20 p.m., authorities started to receive calls of a reported Structure Fire at 1803 E Main Street. Residents at 1803 reported that a lighting had struck the building or in the area of their building and caused the fire alarms to activating.

City of Waukesha Police and Fire Dispatch Center then received a call from a neighboring building at the apartment complex reporting the buildings fire alarms going off and a possible fire alarm at 1802 Shephard Court. Fire crews were diverted to the Shephard Street address while crews continued to investigate at the E. Main Street.

Fire officials said crews at Shephard Court found smoke and fire in the attic of the building. Joe Hoffman, Assistant Fire Chief with the Waukesha Fire Department told Patch that fire crews began fighting the fire from the inside of the building. One person was rescued from inside before the fire began to spread.

Despite the best efforts of the interior crews the fire broke through the roof, and fire crews went to defensive operations. All firefighters were evacuated from the building, and ladder trucks provided the bulk of the fire suppression until it was under control.

"By sunrise we had the fire under control, and this morning we started allowing residents back in there one at a time," Hoffman said.

Local photographer Tim Snopek posted some of the fire photos on Facebook early Friday morning.

The apartment building, built in the 1990s, has 42 units, and had fire sprinklers in all occupied areas of the building, fire officials said. The building has extensive damage throughout.

The Red Cross is aiding with a shelter for the displaced residents. Two residents were
treated on the scene, with one being transported to the hospital while the other refused further
treatment, Hoffman told Patch. One firefighter also received minor injuries but was treated on the scene and released.