Fire destroys residence in Pine Lake

A residence at 4168 River Road in the town of Pine Lake was destroyed by fire Tuesday evening.

According to the Pine Lake Fire Rescue Facebook page, firefighters were dispatched to the residence at approximately 4:49 p.m. Pelican Fire also responded to provide mutual aid.

“Engine 1 arrived on scene to a single story structure with heavy fire and smoke showing,” the Facebook post reads. “At this time a MABAS box was pulled to the 1st level bringing in additional resources from Rhinelander FD, Newbold FD and Crescent FD. River Road was shutdown at (the) intersection of Trails End Road for fire ground operations.  

“Firefighters made an aggressive interior knocking the bulk of fire down but were later forced into defensive operations as the roof structure was failing,” the post said. “This fire brought on several challenges for firefighters as there were multiple shingle layers under the steel roofing and multiple ceiling layers. Everyone was able to get out of the structure.”

Multiple hand lines along with the aerial waterway from Pelican's Ladder Truck were utilized, the post notes. A total of 7 tankers were in the water shuttle supplying water to Pine Lake Engine 1.

An estimated 72,000 gallons of water was used to extinguish the fire.

 The structure, which was divided into two small apartments, is a complete loss. However, a cat found under a mattress was rescued after firefighters applied oxygen to the cat with a pet rescue mask. One cat is still unaccounted for.  

Incident command started releasing departments at approximately 7:30 p.m. and Pine Lake units cleared the scene at 9:15 p.m.

 After firefighters cleaned equipment and repacked the trucks, several guys went back to the structure for another walk-through and located one hot spot in the entry door. After extinguishing, firefighters cleared the scene for the night.  

The Oneida County sheriff’s office, Oneida County Ambulance, WPS and the Town of Pine Lake Shop assisted at the scene. 

In their post, the Pine Lake firefighters included a special thank you to Kwik Trip for its generous donation of pizza and burgers.