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Red Cross helps 5 displaced families in Milan
3 teens injured in 8 alarm blaze
Wanda English Burnett, Editor
Three Milan High School students said they felt lucky to be alive
after fire swept through the apartment building they were in last
Friday evening.
Jamie Altieri, 18, suffered second degree burns after he saved
two sisters, Tiffany Higgins, 17, and Rhonda Montgomery, 14 who
lived in an upstairs apartment at 116 W. Carr Street, Milan.
Altieri was visiting when the girls said they smelled smoke. He
told the Osgood Journal he went downstairs to “check
it out” and discovered the building was on fire. He ran back
up the stairs yelling for the girls to get out. The three ran
from the burning building but did not escape unharmed. They all
suffered burns from melted dripping tar and were taken to Margaret
Mary Community Hospital, Batesville, where they were treated and
released the same evening. “I’m so glad Jamie was there,
we probably would have been too scared to go downstairs,”
noted Tiffany.
The girls’ mother, Stephanie Montgomery, said she was at
work in Aurora when she got the word that her home was on fire.
She knew her girls were hurt and met them at the hospital where
she said, “I couldn’t thank him (Jamie) enough.”
She told the Osgood Journal that she was certain he had saved
their lives and she was grateful. Standing at the sight of the
building that was still blazing at 7:30 p.m. that evening, Stephanie
said they had lost everything in the fire, but commented, “It
doesn’t matter because I have them,” motioning toward
her bandaged daughters, “and that’s all that matters.”
The family had no renters insurance.
Firefighters fought the hot afternoon temperature along with the
fire as they battled the blaze. Eight fire departments were stretched
around the block with Batesville’s aerial truck rolling onto
the scene to assist from the air. Other departments assisting
Milan included: Versailles, Dillsboro, Sunman, Osgood, Delaware,
Napoleon, and Batesville. “It was the biggest effort I’ve
ever seen of departments coming together,” noted Milan’s
Assistant Fire Chief Tony Stutler.
The thick black smoke billowed from the building that was declared
a total loss, according to Stutler. At times the flames lept from
the two-story structure and the gathering crowd could hear windows
cracking from the intense heat.
Ron and Donna Benning watched as the fire blazed next to the apartment
building they own. Tenants of that building also watched wondering
what the smoke damage would be and hoping the fire didn’t
spread.
Another tenant, Tim Beach, was also displaced when the fire claimed
the building. “I don’t know what I’m gonna’
do, I’ve lived there a long time,” he told the Osgood
Journal as he watched his possessions go up in smoke. Beach
said he was in bed and “something” just woke him up.
He left his first floor apartment, but quickly returned to get
family photos. Clutching a photo of his mother, Beach said, “It’s
all I've got.”
Neighbors Scott Wullenweber and Jon Holton saw the black smoke
from down the street and went to check it out. They were instrumental
in getting Beach out of his apartment. Wullenweber said by the
time Beach got the photos out, the apartment was “fully engulfed.”
He said, “I knew he couldn’t go back in there.”
Watching from the sideline, Beach was distraught saying he was
homeless and didn’t know what to do.
Sandy Vanderbur, director of the Ripley County Chapter of the
American Red Cross said they helped five displaced families. Four
were tenants of the destroyed building and one family lived in
the apartment next door and couldn’t return that evening
because fire fighters were on the scene until early morning hours.
The two other families displaced were Jesse and Katie Hartmann
and Marion Scudder, according to Vanderbur.
If you would like to help these victims you can do so by calling
the Red Cross office at 689-6308. The families lost everything
and Vanderbur noted they are in need of household items and just
anything people could help them out with. If you want to donate
money you can do so by sending a check marked “Milan fire
victims” to Red Cross, PO Box 221, Versailles, IN 47042.
While the exact cause of the fire had not been reported at press
time, the initial belief was it had started in the laundry room.
Assistant Chief Stutler said he could confirm the cause was located
in the laundry room, but the State Fire Marshal’s Office
had not made an exact determination. The building is owned by
Dennis Niese of Brookville.
Dispatchers in the Ripley County Communications Center were busy
throughout the evening with the initial call coming in at 4:07
p.m. Dispatcher Donna Million confirmed there were eight fire
departments involved, two squads from Milan Rescue 30, two squads
from Sunman’s Rescue 20 and one from Rescue 69 and Ripley
County Paramedics on the scene. Officers from the Milan Police
Department along with deputies from the Ripley County Sheriff’s
Department were on the scene to assist.
Stutler noted that the firemen were dismissed about 12:30 p.m.
with investigators still on the job at 4:00 a.m., twelve hours
after they were called to the scene. He also said a Sunman fire
fighter had a twisted ankle and was taken to Margaret Mary Community
Hospital, but other than that, no other firefighters were injured.
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