Quick response saves the day for NOSD

An alert neighbor and passers-by are being credited with saving the Northern Ozaukee School District campus from what could have been a serious fire Sunday morning.

At 8:58 a.m., the Fredonia Fire Department received several 911 calls from people reporting smoke and flames coming from the district’s building, which houses Ozaukee elementary, middle and high schools, Chief Brian Weyker said. 

Firefighters arrived to find a rooftop backup generator on fire.

“I live directly to the north, and when I looked out my window and saw the smoke I bumped it up to a level one mutual response,” Weyker said, adding that eight departments responded.

The fire was quickly extinguished and firefighters left the scene around 11 a.m., Weyker said.

“A neighbor who lives behind the practice football field saw smoke right away and called the fire department,” School Supt. Dave Karrels said. “Thankfully someone saw it and called it in right away, otherwise this could have been so much worse.”

The generator was destroyed and a section of roof underneath it will need to be replaced, Karrels said. There was also some water damage inside the building, he said. 

“The interior damage is fairly minimal,” Karrels said. 

As of Monday, the district had not received a repair estimate, he said, adding that the cost will be covered by insurance. 

Even though the fire was relatively small, the cost of repairing the damage won’t be insignificant, Weyker said. 

“Just off the top of my head, I’m guessing there could be $300,000 to $400,000 worth of damage,” he said. 

The cause of the fire is listed as undetermined, but generator fires are often caused by block heaters or battery backups, Weyker said. 

The generator, which powers key systems in the school when the electricity goes out, was not operating at the time, but the block heater is always on so the generator powers up immediately when it is needed, he said. 

Weyker said it was fortunate the fire started during the day when people were out and about rather than at night.

“If it had gone unnoticed for a period of time, it definitely would have spread,” he said.

At Monday’s Northern Ozaukee School Board meeting, officials praised the quick work of everyone from firefighters and district staff members to contractors and insurance companies.

“The response is what allowed us to be where we are now — from the first billows of smoke to a neighbor calling it in to people literally taking their personal vehicles and flying into the (school) lot,” Karrels said. “We’d have a much different story if it wasn’t for the great people in our community.”

Facilities Director Kent Schueller told the board that the generator will be removed from the roof and a roofing contractor and insurance adjuster were to be on site Tuesday. A new backup generator will be installed by the end of the week, he said. 

“The sun hadn’t even set last night (Sunday) and we already had contractors lined up,” Schueller said. “We’ll have a new roof by noon Wednesday and a new backup generator by the end of the week — a complete turnaround in a week.” 

School Board member Dan Large noted the generator was installed shortly after voters approved a facilities improvement referendum in 2018.

“It was only six years old and had only had 100-some hours on it,” Schueller said. “It was not running. It was just sitting there idle. What happened, we don’t know.”

Director of Business Services Josh McDaniel said he was at a baseball game when he received a call from the district’s representative at Ansay Insurance, Tony Matera, telling him about the fire.

“He said, ‘Hey, I hope everything is OK. We’ll work with you on the insurance adjuster, and for the cleanup we recommend this,’ and the fire trucks weren’t even pulling up to the building yet,” McDaniel said. 

In addition to the Fredonia Fire Department, departments from Waubeka, Belgium, Cedar Grove, Port Washington, Cedarburg and Fillmore responded the fire. The Ozaukee Central Fire Department also responded with equipment and personnel from both its Saukville and Grafton stations, Weyker said.