GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – An overnight fire in Green Bay has destroyed an apartment complex, putting about 66 residents out of a home.
The call came in just before midnight Monday to the Sand and Sun Apartment complex on Danz Avenue. That’s on the city’s east side.
Green Bay Metro Fire Lt. Nick Craig says the cause is unknown, but the blaze is believed to have started in a utility room in the basement area.
“We’re looking at about $700,000, building, damages, the building is a complete loss and then the contents that were in the apartment,” Craig says.
All of the residents made it out safely.
American Red Cross volunteer Diane Knutson translated for many of the Spanish speaking residents who were displaced.
“One lady was telling me that she had burned out of a place completely, where she lived several years ago, and so the memories of that all come back and the losses. A lot of the things that are the real losses for people are the sentimental things you can’t replace,” Knutson told FOX 11.
About 15 volunteers are helping the residents, while Danz Elementary School’s gym is being used as a temporary shelter.
This devastating fire is reminding some folks of another blaze that completely destroyed an entire apartment complex nearly two years ago. That was the Hilltop Place Apartments in Allouez.
Lt. Craig says both buildings were built around the same time with the same fire protection system.
“It did not have fire breaks in the attic to stop the fire from spreading from one end of the building to the other and it also didn’t have sprinklers,” says Craig. “Once things got going, they went rather quickly just like Hilltop.”
Craig says one reminder for everyone who rents, it’s important that you have insurance just in case this happens to you.
“One apartment that we know of had renters insurance,” Craig says. “In this day and age, to replace all your belongings and potentially protect you in civil court if it’s proven that you caused the fire is well worth that 8 to 12 dollars a month.”
(Additional reporting from FOX 11).
