Structure Fire in LaValle

On Tuesday, March 15^th, 2016 at 1:07pm, the Sauk County Communications Center received reports of smoke coming from the roof vents of the “Bare Necessities” grocery store in LaValle, WI.

LaValle Fire and EMS were paged to respond to the suspected fire, and shortly thereafter, a LaValle Fire official requested Sauk County Dispatch page out a MABAS alert to the third level, which is an automatic mutual aid agreement between fire departments to quickly acquire assistance in large scale events. Additional assistance to the MABAS fifth level as well as inter-divisional assistance brought Firefighters and equipment from as far as New Glarus, WI.

Fire crews battled the fire in excess of 6 hours. The Sauk County Sheriffs Office, assisted by the Baraboo Police Department have begun an investigation into the origin and cause of the fire. At this time an area of origin has been established, but the cause is still under investigation. Investigators have not found anything suspicious in nature thus far in this investigation, which is ongoing.

The Sheriffs Office, LaValle Fire and Emergency Medical Services and the LaValle community are grateful for the assistance provided by the other agencies that responded to this emergency situation.

Chip Meister

Sauk County Sheriff