The View From Wisconsin

Finally, a night off where I can relax and sleep in my own bed. I'm slowly dozing off when, right around midnight or so, I start hearing sirens. I don't think much of it, of course, because we live near a nursing home.

Then another siren. And another one. And pretty soon I'm hearing trucks idling out on the street. Not close enough to be across the street, but close enough to be annoying. A couple of dogs are barking - we have a few in the neighborhood that are good for that - and I'm wondering what's going on. I feel like I need to get up and get something substantial to eat, so I head downstairs quietly.

That's when I see the flashing lights from outside. I peek out the front door window and see at least three fire trucks down Morris Street - and a hose hooked up to the fire extinguisher at the corner.

Curiosity gets the better of me, and I wake up Sarah, letting her know what's going on and that I'm going to step outside to see what's going on. I get out of the house, down the steps and over to the corner of Morris and Ridgeway - and that's where I see about six or seven fire trucks and a whole gaggle of firemen - some not from Pewaukee - looking up a parking area into an apartment building that's set back from the street, with the back facing Highway 16.

A fire apparently broke out in the garage underneath the building, and there was heavy smoke rising up into the air. There were too many vehicles and trucks to see exactly where, but the stairwell entrance to one of the apartment foyers had smoke coming out. There was also smoke coming from the back of the building.

This building has a short history: it's the same building where the gentleman who tried to take over the Village of Pewaukee Town Hall with a fake bomb back in July lived. I doubt the two are related, of course.

I can still hear the idling trucks outside. Fortunately, there hasn't been any major issues at all (like, say, explosions). Hopefully they'll have the fire contained by morning, or my wife could have an interesting commute to work tomorrow.