FOND DU LAC, WI (WTAQ) – Thursday was a tough day for Fond Du Lac Firefighters as they had to battle a blaze and their emotions.
A fire that killed three people in a Fond Du Lac Group Home Thursday morning, marks the fourth fatality by fire in Fond Du Lac this year.
“Three in one fire is the most that I have ever seen in my 30-year career.”
Fire Chief Peter O’Leary says being unable to save the residents from the fire feels like a sense of failure.
“When the outcome does not meet our expectations, it is tough. I wish we could have today back and I wish we knew about the fire an hour earlier.”
He says the situation made it impossible for them to save their lives, but that is their job.
“I think they have a reasonable expectation that we are going to save them and maybe sometimes that is not fair, but that is certinetly how I felt in my career.”
He says the fire spread quickly and they knew that anybody inside was not going to make it out.
“We tried to extinguish but the intensity made it difficult to make an interior attack on the fire. We took ladders up to the windows of where we figured people might be and made a quick look.”
While the official cause of death is not known yet, Cheif O’Leary says he guesses the cause of death is a common one.
“Most of the fire was beneath them and I am guessing that they probably died of Carbon Monoxide poisoning.”
Chief O’Leary says having working smoke detectors in all rooms and an escape plan for every room is a way that lives can be saved, since you never know where a fire will start.
“We suffered with these people. We are in the positive outcome business.”
O’Leary says the victims will be identified once the families are all notified.
