DELAFIELD – A Sept. 12 late-night fire that displaced all the building’s tenants and injured one in a Delafield apartment subdivision has now become the focus of a criminal investigation.
Delafield Police Chief Landon Nyren, in an updated news release this week, said his office is working with the state fire marshal through the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation and the Waukesha County District Attorney’s Office in a review that is expected to take months to complete.
However, the exact nature of the investigation — such as whether it involves arson, gross negligence or even a serious a code violation — was not specified. “Right now it is just a criminal investigation,” Nyren said Friday in response to a Journal Sentinel reporter’s questions, declining to elaborate further.
In the news release, he added that there are no suspects being sought as part of the investigation
The 11 p.m. fire consumed a lower unit and spread to the attic of the eight-unit apartment building at 4735 Vista Park Court, within a city of Delafield subdivision consisting of a cluster of similar small apartment buildings.
It trapped one female tenant on the second floor who was blocked by heavy smoke in the hallway, prompting a rescue through a bedroom window, according to earlier reports by Lake Country Fire and Rescue.
Emergency personnel were dispatched after a 911 caller reported what smelled like an electrical fire, with smoke seen coming out of the structure.
Nyren said that some of the displaced residents, who received assistance from the American Red Cross and Salvation Army on the night of the fire, were able to return to the apartment building on one side, while the others have been placed in alternative units.
Contact reporter Jim Riccioli at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Officials open criminal investigation tied to Delafield apartment fire
Source Agencies
