Fire Chief Lipski says his firefighters are not at fault after the discovery of a man's body a day after extinguishing a fire at property with extreme hoarding conditions

Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski defended the actions of his firefighters Wednesday, after the body of a 70-year-old man was found earlier this month one day after fire crews extinguished a fire at commercial/residential property that had hoarder conditions.

The cause of Grant E. Forbes' death is still undetermined, awaiting toxicology reports from the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office, Lipski said during a news conference also attended by Police Chief Jeffrey Norman.

The incident began on Jan. 2, when the fire department responded to the property in the 2600 block of West Greenfield Avenue on the city's south side for a report of the smell of gas.

The fire department determined that the property had high levels of volatile organic compounds, which have high vapor pressure and low water solubility, and can be found in common household products. At high levels, VOCs can be hazardous to people.

Lipski said the hazardous material team ventilated the residence, which resulted in a lowering of the VOC levels. "We removed the emergency, we ventilated, and we contacted the Milwaukee Health Department because there was still a really strong odor," Lipski said.

The following day, the health department inspector said someone yelled out to them "get out of here, you don't belong here," followed by a "pop" sound, Lipski said. The sound was similar to a firecracker and Lipski said he does not believe it was a gunshot.

Shortly following that altercation, an inspector on site alerted the fire department because smoke was appearing from the back garage of the property, Lipski said. The garage is ultimately connected to the rest of the property.

Upon the arrival of the fire department, crews found extreme hoarding conditions in the garage. Firefighters determined they needed to break glass block windows in another section of the property in order to reach the fire. After breaking the windows, more debris fell out of the building and crews realized they wouldn't be able to access the fire that way either.

Ultimately, crews were able to enter the property through a narrow doorway and extinguish the fire, Lipski said.

The next day, property owner's representatives cleared out at least three truckloads of debris, Lipski said. That afternoon, the fire department and Milwaukee Police were called back to the scene because a body was found inside the property.

Lipski said the hoarding conditions were so extreme that fire crews did not suspect a body was underneath all the clutter.

"The density, and the compactness, and the tightness of all of these different types of debris lead me to make the following conclusion that no reasonable person, no reasonable firefighter, no reasonable experienced firefighter would anticipate that there would be a person inside of this densely packed pile of debris," Lipski said.

"I hope ... that no reasonable person would anticipate that we would remove an entire junkyard worth of debris from a space, believing somebody had created a fortress in the middle of it."

It's unclear if Forbes caused the fire, the cause of the fire is still "undetermined," Lipski said, adding there's "very, very strong suspicion that it was intentionally set."

Lipski said Forbes was also on scene during a fire at the property in 2015, but the fire department determined it was an accidental fire.

It's also unclear if Forbes died from the fire. The investigation is still ongoing, Lipski said. The man had no burn injuries, but likely suffered from smoke inhalation, Lipski said.

The fire department found paper towels strung into ribbons around where the body was found, which is a common tactic for people looking to set a building on fire, Lipski said. However, the towels were "shock white," Lipski said, meaning not affected by the fire.

Also, prior to the fire, the health department found a pile of debris, similar to a barricade, near the doorway, but Lipski said that barricade was not there when firefighters gained entry to put out the fire.

"It was believed, amongst ourselves, police detectives, everybody there ... that the individual, between the time of yelling, pop, smoke ... the individual got themselves out of the building and left out another exit," Lipski said.

Lipski said the property owner's representatives said they had no idea that someone was living in the garage, but added that records indicate that the owners knew and were in fact renting out the space to the man. Lipski said he received reports that the decedent was living in this space for 15 to 20 years.

According to Lipski, firefighters are increasingly facing hoarding conditions in Milwaukee.

"We are seeing, more frequently, and in worsening conditions — hoarder conditions. This is problematic because the more this goes, the worse each individual hoarding location gets," Lipski said. "I've personally attended fires where they have to saw the wall off to make entry because there is no other alternative to get to the space, it is so cramped packed.

"These are exceptionally dangerous locations for firefighters to operate. Low visibility, unknown fire source location, heat that is changing on them; this is a very, very dangerous situation to put firefighters into."

Lipski said the fire department will work with the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission to figure out exactly what happened.

"I want this to not have happened, believe you me, but I can't fault my firefighters that were there that day because it should be clear here, no reasonable person would have anticipated the individual was where they were going to be," Lipski said.

Contact Drake Bentley at (414) 391-5647 or DBentley1@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DrakeBentleyMJS. 

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Man found dead in Milwaukee property with extreme hoarding conditions