Wisconsin Firefighters Battle Blaze at Office Building

A late afternoon fire at a South Side office building took over four hours to put out and may have resulted in a total loss, a Madison Fire Department official said.

Dispatch received a call about the fire at the Causeway Centre office building, 900 John Nolen Drive, just before 4 p.m. Tuesday, said Madison Fire Department spokeswoman Lori Wirth.

The building was evacuated and no injuries were officially reported, though Wirth said she'd heard one person may have gone to the hospital as a precautionary step.

Three waves of firefighters were called in from around Dane County to combat the blaze, including units from the town of Madison, Fitchburg, Monona and McFarland. In total, it took about 75 firefighters and 15 different vehicles until about 8 p.m. to extinguish the fire, Wirth said.

"We needed all the bodies we could get to rotate in and out because this was such a tough fire to fight," she said.

Around the city, a tower of smoke was visible for miles and as many as 50 bicyclist stopped along the Capital City Trail to watch emergency crews battle the fire.

Madison police closed John Nolen Drive between the Beltline and Rimrock Road, along with Beltline off-ramps to John Nolen Drive for about two hours, Lt. Trevor Knight said. Wirth said low water pressure forced firefighters to stretch hoses to hydrants across the street and that dense smoke may have compromised visibility along the thoroughfare.

Wirth said the building, which housed multiple business, suffered "significant structural damage."

"There's no way to know what the damage estimate is at this time, but it's likely close to the assessed value," she said.

The fire is believed to have started in a rear corner of a crawl space in the building's basement. The building did not have a full basement and the crawl space was only accessible through a 2-square-foot hatch, which Wirth said made it impossible to reach the source.

The floor around the hatch started collapsing within 45 minutes of firefighters' arrival. The rest of the floors began collapsing around 5:30, causing firefighters to evacuate the building.

Two crews were left overnight to ensure the fire didn't re-kindle, Wirth said.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service