This November, the Red Cross in Southeastern Wisconsin is especially thankful to you, our donors, because your generosity allowed our Disaster Services staff to respond to 41 fires, including two fires that left college students and many residents living in multi-unit apartment fires living in without a place to live.

The first large fire struck on November 12, when the Disaster Action Team (DAT) responded immediately. It was a highly publicized fire at a fraternity house in Whitewater and the Red Cross provided food, clothing and other assistance for 10 of the students.

On the same day, the Milwaukee County DAT responded to another high publicity, high impact fire that displaced 23 people from their 18-unit apartment building. A local alderman helped the Red Cross find a place for the residents, and caseworkers provided for their immediate needs including food, clothes and shelter until they could move to a new apartment.

The second week of November remained busy, when the DAT responded to a fire at 618 N. 30th Street in Milwaukee. Staff members opened cases for 14 households, and provided food, shelter and clothing to the displaced residents.

A week later, caseworkers assisted 10 families in two days, as fires broke out at apartment buildings on Fond du Lac Avenue and S. Chicago Street in Milwaukee.

Four days later, another large fire occurred in Milwaukee. Twenty people were displaced when a fire struck their eight-unit apartment building. The Red Cross opened a reception center at the office, and caseworkers met with clients to meet their immediate needs. Luckily, the residents were able to return to their building that night.

The rash of fires did not stop. A fire at a duplex displaced ten college students from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater at the end of the month. The DAT responded, and provided for the students’ immediate needs.

There was no break for the DAT as an apartment building on Silver Spring in Milwaukee caught fire at 11:30 p.m. on November 29. A Red Cross caseworker met with the families the next day. There were four families, consisting of 21 individuals, given lodging and food, as well as comfort kits.
This list includes just the fires that affected a large number of people. With the numerous smaller fires our DAT responded to, caseworkers and DAT members opened 82 cases, providing assistance to 228 people.

To our volunteers and donors: thank you for giving your time and money so we could help members of our community who had no food or shelter. Please don't stop, we need your financial donation and volunteer time so we can continue to members of our community displaced by fires and other disasters.