I saw all of the trucks on the scene. Although I am VERY sad about the pets, did there really need to be trucks from NINE different departments on the scene? They were still coming when it looked as if things were well under control. I realize I do not have all the details, but what if the trucks were needed in their own communites during this time? It seems wasteful and careless to me to have that many trucks respond. Maybe this is normal?

@ Lyssa-Yes, it does make me curious. I lost count after about 12 trucks/ambulances. They could barely fit on the street! I figured that not all the trucks from other communites would come, that some would stay behind, but it still seemed like way too many. But, what do I know? :-) Thanks!

As a Captain of one of the departments that was on scene (Newburg), the easy answer to your question is yes. All of the departments that were there are volunteer. Most of us have daytime jobs, many of which are out of our response area, or they are jobs we can't leave if we get a call. Also, according to NFPA 1584, firefighters are required to rehab (exit the danger zone of a fire and make sure you are healthy enough to return) after doing work on a scene. So, if you already have a small crew, and have members that are not able to participate in direct firefighting tasks, more crews need to be brought in. Most of the departments that assisted brought only one truck. When a large department, say Milwaukee, has a fire, they are only one department, but may have many of the cities stations responding. And to the point of having more trucks responding when the fire "looked as if everything was well under control." An enormous amount of work still has to be done once the visible flames are out. One point that is also often overlooked, is that every taxpayer in a volunteer department's area have substantial savings not having to pay for fire service. We help out our brothers and sisters on our neighboring departments because we need to make sure everyone of them goes home to their families at the end of the day. So....Yes. We need that many trucks and ambulances on a scene.

Thank you Jason for clearing that up for us

Thank you Jason for that very well stated explanation. Sometimes things don't look as they appear and it helps to know the details. Not that we all necessarily need to know every detail every time, but the explanation is appreciated. It still looked like quite a turn out. But, I would rather have too many than not enough. Too bad about the dogs, though. That's tough. Thanks for your hard work!

So devastating! My heart hurts for this family! Not only for the loss of their furry family members but for the loss of personal & sentimental belongings and the inconvenience of finding another residence until their house can be repaired or rebuilt. My thoughts and prayers go out to this family. Job well done to all the firefights and many thanks for your hard work & service to this wonderful community we live in.

Being a volunteer is a Fulltime job, always on call and never fully appreciated... So they brought a few extra rigs to a house fire.. you people would complain if no one showed up and the house burned down. I would rather have rigs parked on my street sitting idle than watching my house burn. They plan these mutual aid agreements so not one villiage/town is depleted down to dangerous levels, one small dept cant always handle every call especially during the day when most "volunteers" are away at work out of their village/town.

If you have animals please consider a high tech heat/fire detection system that will call the fire department, you, and neighbors who can take their key and get the animals out. I have one in my home from DeTech Firesense Technologies made right here in Saukville. It is a superior system which just might save human life in the dead of the night. Ellie

Thanks for explanations on number of trucks. It does appear puzzling. SFD could do some PR on the topic if people are interested. Learning more and actually having those conversations with Chiefs and Captains on the Fire Dept can shed a lot of light on the operations and how the service and the escalation levels and collaboration truly benefit us. When all those depts come, they have to backfill their own station as well, so, it ends up rippling out to many more communities that any of us ever really imagine. Municipal Fire Staffing is a well-honed "machine" with radios, telephones, spreadsheets, and when it works well it's excellent but the average citizen simply sees a lot of trucks with a lot of city, village and town names, and honestly, it does appear kinda odd/ridiculous, though it's not. Of course, to learn and to know and have that confidence in our Fire Service, you could always join as a member (paid on-call), or an auxiliary (volunteer unpaid) and hear a lot of this first hand and repeated, until it makes sense. It may be simple to some, but it's not simple at all.... simply well - coordinated and I'm grateful I don't have to make the calls for escalations like this.
How about this one - saw trucks back at 7pm... for... hotspots? investigation? or did it flare back up? The Fire Dept also has to return to the scene once smoke has cleared, and more than once... with officials like police and Fire Marshal and without depending on the situation.

Great idea on the DeTech FireSense Technologies! When I heard of the fire I thought of my pets and found this info: Detech Firesense Technologies
(262) 236-0123 detech.com 520 Technology Way, Saukville, WI 53080.

Wow, just found out my youngest son, was on the scene with one of the area Fire Dept. to help SFD's crews fight the blaze. I am One Proud Dad !