City Reopens South Side Fire House

Fire Station for Engine 31 Fire Company. Photo taken Jan. 8 2025 by Graham Kilmer.

At the southeast corner of W. Hayes St. and S. 8th St., in red brick, stands a monument to the hard work of local leaders to secure new revenue for the City of Milwaukee.

It’s a firehouse, built in 1911, and once again the post for Milwaukee Fire Department Engine Company 31.

The firehouse was shuttered in 2018 due to budget constraints. Thanks to the “monumental undertaking” of city and state officials during negotiations for the sales tax deal in Wisconsin Act 12, the firehouse was officially recommissioned Wednesday morning, said Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski.

During the intervening years, the department used the firehouse for Community Para-Medicine and Mobile Integrated Healthcare program and the Milwaukee Overdose Response Initiative.

The new firehouse should shorten response times for nearby residents and lighten the burden for surrounding stations. In April last year, several houses across the street from the station went up in a blaze. One of the residents died and firefighter Brian McMenamin was gravely injured, suffering severe burns.

“[The fire] set in motion a wave of emotions and a wave of logistical considerations about where should we put our resources,” Lipski said.

The new firehouse is the result of work by city officials on the 2025 budget, said Mayor Cavalier Johnson. The budget also added more than two dozen positions to the department’s roster.

“Recommissioning here marks a milestone in our journey to make sure that Milwaukee residents, workers and visitors are safe,” Johnson said.

Area Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic, who chairs the Common Council’s Finance and Personnel Committee, said the road to the recommissioned firehouse was “paved with hard decisions” by the mayor and the council. 

“One of them included increasing revenue, the sales tax; that paid off,” Dimitrijevic said. “It’s not an easy pill to swallow, but that investment is now coming to fruition.”

The new firehouse comes at a time of great need for the surrounding neighborhood. The mayor noted that calls for service are increasing in the area. Dmitrijevic explained — to the nodding agreement of Lipski — that the fire crews are increasingly responding to health related calls, as the private health care industry recedes from residents lives.

“How often in any kind of government, especially local government, do we get to celebrate increasing services to our constituents?” Dimitrijevic said. “That’s what we’re here to talk about today.”

The recommissioned station will be led by Fire Captain Todd Christensen, a lifelong south sider. “I played basketball as St. Josephat. I was baptized at St. Augustine and my very first fish fry I ever had is right across the street,” Christensen said.

It’s not uncommon for the ties that bond Milwaukee firefighters to also be familial, and Chief Lipski shared his own personal connection to the historic Engine 31 Firehouse. His father, former Deputy Chief Neil Lipski, was in charge of overseeing the last remodel the station underwent.

City and fire department leaders cut the ribbon on the recommissioned house Wednesday morning after a blessing from Father Bede Thigpen of St. Josephats. They were joined by fireman McMenamin, now recovered from his injuries and back on duty, and a neighborhood resident, Jose Antonio Garcia, who turned out for the recommissioning. 

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