The Chetek fire chief says no one was supposed to be living in the upstairs apartment where a fire happened Monday.

Chief Joe Atwood says that same home caught fire last year and the landlord was supposed to take some measures to prevent another fire.

Atwood says investigators are looking through the paperwork to see if the landlord complied. Seven people were able to get out from the house when it caught fire Monday morning.

We tried to reach the landlord for comment, but were unsuccessful.

Investigators aren't sure how the fire started, but they do know it was in a backroom located near electrical panels.

FIRE FUND SET UP:

Mail donations to:
Sterling Bank
P.O. Box 106
Chetek, WI 54728

You can drop off a donation at any Sterling Bank. They're located in Chetek, Rice Lake, Barron and Luck.

Accounts are set up for the Watson family, the Reul/Raboin family and the Robertson family.

ORIGINAL STORY FROM MONDAY, JAN. 5:

A family is homeless after a fire destroys their rental house.

Seven people were home, including four children, when the fire started. Thankfully they all got out.

The Chetek fire chief says the fire quickly spread through the two story home and the family lost everything.

"The fact that I know I have to start over because I lost everything," Nikole Reul can’t hold back tears as she looks at what used to be her home.

After dark it's hard to see just what Nikole and her family lost. The house is dark, burned out and empty. Just hours earlier, Nikole raced to get everyone out before the flames took over.

"I was going out to the back porch to get a shirt for my daughter and there were flames coming through the door and smoke was coming through the door," she says, her voice cracking.

Nikole says she woke up her fiancé and screamed for her ten-year-old brother, before grabbing her one-year-old and two-month-old babies. She says her neighbor upstairs who also has a baby got out too.

"I was in the bedroom taking a nap because I came home sick from school early in the morning. I wouldn't have woken up if Nikole hadn't screamed my name," Nikole's Brother Alex Watson tells us.

He says the flames were just outside his bedroom door when he ran out.

"I just heard her screaming and sparks," Alex says.

The fire chief says everyone was out of the home when he got there, but it took crews six hours to get the fire under control.

"If you can just imagine, it was hollow walls in a two story home, they're very hard to get at. It kept spreading. It was very hard to get an interior attack. They're very lucky to get out," says Chetek Fire District Chief Joe Atwood.

But, he says the family also has a huge loss to deal with.

"The Red Cross will put them up for a couple days, but after that they're on their own,” Chief Atwood says. “I mean what do you do? Where do you go?"

"I don't know. I really don't. Every single thing I had was in there. All of my son's and daughter's baby pictures. Everything. We don't have anything left,” Nikole says.

Nikole says the family has no renters insurance and this is the third fire she's had to deal with. She says there was a fire in the attic last year and several years ago a fire destroyed her Rice Lake home.

ORIGINAL STORY FROM MONDAY AFTERNOON:

Seven people were able to get out of a burning house this morning after finding their porch on fire.

Chetek Fire Chief Joe Atwood says the fire destroyed the house at 425 Dallas Street in Chetek. Atwood says 7 people lived downstairs in one apartment and 2 lived upstairs. Atwood says the people downstairs noticed smoke in the porch and opened it up to find fire. They woke everyone up and all 10 people got out safely.

Atwood says about 30 firefighters spent six and a half hours on scene. The Chetek Fire Department called in the Cameron and New Auburn departments for help. Atwood says one firefighter slipped and hurt his ankle, but is OK.

The house was partially torn down to let firefighters put out the flames. Atwood says the rest of the house will be torn down as well. Investigators are still trying to figure out the cause, but the home’s electrical panels are in the room where the family found the fire.

Atwood says the Red Cross helped the family find a place to stay.