Electrical fires are often treated as accidents in Milwaukee, but they are actually foreseeable tragedies with the government doing little to fix the problem, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation found.
Our work found that suspected electrical fires are rarely investigated, hiding the fact that they are a deadly public health disparity for Milwaukee’s Black and low-income neighborhoods. In one such neighborhood, suspected electrical fires scorched homes at five times the rate of the rest of Milwaukee.
The investigation found that police and fire departments as well as the state fire marshal do not investigate suspected electrical fires, treating them simply as accidents and labeling the cause undetermined. It also found the city’s Department of Neighborhood Services allows unscrupulous landlords with histories of extensive code violations to continue renting out dangerous properties.
In an effort to measure the true scope of electrical hazards in Milwaukee’s rental homes, the Journal Sentinel hired a master electrician to conduct home inspections in Milwaukee’s hardest-hit ZIP code. The results of the randomized study indicated 80% of single and two-family rental properties in the study area have serious electrical problems.
The team also obtained hard-to-get rental assistance data, analyzing it to find that taxpayer funds are going to landlords who failed to fix electrical violations cited by the city. In some cases, those landlords had warrants for their arrest for their negligence.