Salem firefighter transported to hospital as precaution, chief said
By Jason Arndt
Staff Writer
An industrial unit at the Salem Business Park has been destroyed following a Wednesday afternoon blaze that required mutual aid from nearly two dozen area fire departments.
According to Town of Salem Fire Chief Mike Slover, the fire started around 3 p.m., and took nearly three hours to extinguish.
“An occupant was working on a vehicle, and the fire was discovered, and he tried to extinguish it,” Slover stated. “It is under investigation, but not considered suspicious.”
The Fire Investigation Task Force of Kenosha County, which include fire officials and the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department are leading the probe, Slover said.
Additionally, Slover reported one firefighter was transported to an area hospital for precautionary reasons, citing heat exhaustion.
“We had one injury so far from the Salem Fire Department, he was transported for heat exhaustion for precautionary purposes,” Slover said.
When authorities arrived at the 28501 Wilmot Rd. property, Slover stated there had been difficulty accessing the unit and obtaining adequate water supply.
“The issues we had were access to the buildings and also to a water supply,” Slover stated. “There was a pretty good fire on the inside, and the water supply was limited.”
Consequently, Slover requested several tanker trucks to haul water.
Trevor resident Zach Lentz, 22, watched the event unfold, stating firefighters had to break down the doors.
“By the time the fire department got here, there was smoke filling the whole building,” Lentz said. “It started going down, unit to unit, all the way down.”
Town of Salem Fire and Rescue received mutual aid from Racine, Kenosha counties along with departments from Northern Illinois.
Departments in Kenosha County were from Bristol, Pleasant Prairie, Silver Lake, Paris, City of Kenosha, Randall, Wheatland and Somers.
Responding agencies from Racine included Kansasville, Union Grove, Town of Burlington and the Racine Fire Bells.
Northern Illinois departments that helped came from Lake Villa, Round Lake, Fox Lake, McHenry, Richmond, Spring Grove, Antioch, Newport and Wauconda.