Home of fatal fire previously cited for 'potentially hazardous' electrical wiring

As smoke filled the house on North 14th Street in the early morning hours of Oct. 12, the two people on the second floor heard no alarms. 

The smoke detectors in the duplex were not working, Milwaukee firefighters discovered upon their arrival.    

Firefighters were responding to a call from the lower unit’s resident who said there was an “electrical smell.” Firefighters found no sign of fire in the basement or on the first floor. When they went upstairs and opened the door, they “encountered heavy smoke conditions,” according to a statement from the Milwaukee Fire Department.

Fifty-three-year-old Patricia Colston’s body lay just inside the door. The body of Clarence Murrell Jr., 60, was found nearby, on the floor in front of the kitchen sink.   

Both died from injuries stemming from smoke inhalation, according to the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Fire investigators suspect a bad electrical outlet may be to blame. It appeared the fire started in the wall near the outlet, according to reports released by the Fire Department and Medical Examiner’s Office. There was no electricity in the unit, but the electricity was on downstairs. 

The house is owned by Morocco Investments, a limited liability company headed by one of Milwaukee’s most notorious landlords, Will Sherard.

Sherard’s company owns dozens of properties across the city and is frequently entangled in disputes with city officials and the courts over code violations and unpaid fines.

Municipal court records show the city currently has a handful of cases open against the company.

Over the years, Sherard racked up about $65,000 in fines and had properties with hundreds of code violations.

In 2017, the house on 14th Street was among those cited by city code inspectors. Responding to a complaint alleging “electric meters not working, wiring issues, sockets not working,” inspectors found 28 violations in the property, including four relating to electrical problems.

“A recent inspection indicated electrical wiring improperly installed or defective that is potentially hazardous,” the Jan. 20, 2017, report states. “Restore to a safe condition. Permit required.”

The inspector gave the owner until March 1, 2017, to correct the problem.

When the inspector revisited the property in April, he reported the violations had been abated.

A search of electrical permits by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, however, found no records indicating a permit had been pulled. Permits trigger inspections by the city’s electrical experts who can assess whether the work was done properly.

City officials told the Journal Sentinel, the “Permit required,” language on the report was “boilerplate” and that sometimes the work did not actually require a permit.

Tom Mishefske, commissioner of the Department of Neighborhood Services, said the specific violation regarding improperly installed or defective wiring pertained to wires extending out from a box in the kitchen that had no cover. It could have been a box for a lighting fixture.

“It’s safe to say the order that we issued was taken care of for those violations,” Mishefske said.

Mishefske said inspectors don’t open electrical panels or examine wiring behind drywall or plaster as part of general inspections. And the city does not conduct annual fire inspections on single and double family homes.

“It’s the owner’s responsibility to make sure their property is up to code,” he said.

City officials were called to the property again in August this year after a complaint regarding trash in the yard. Inspectors issued a cleanup order. They didn’t go inside the house.

Sherard did not answer phones calls from the Journal Sentinel to his office or cellphone.