Background: News footage of the warehouse fire in Milwaukee, Wis., that took place on May 20 (WITI). Inset: Ellen Stevens (Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office).
A Wisconsin woman allegedly told her friends that she was responsible for starting a massive building fire that cost nearly $1 million in damages.
Ellen Stevens, 22, posted $250 bond after she was arrested for negligent handling of burning material on May 22. According to a criminal complaint reviewed by Law&Crime, Stevens was one of four people seen on surveillance video leaving the property near an abandoned warehouse in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on May 20. At 6:10 p.m. that day, 911 received several calls about smoke coming from the four-story building, which had been condemned and deemed unsafe to enter.
The Milwaukee Fire Department had to extinguish the fire from the outside, which allowed the fire inside to become a five-alarm fire. Part of the building collapsed, requiring the entire structure to be demolished.
According to the complaint, officers from the Milwaukee Police Department obtained surveillance video that showed four people — one woman and three men — arriving at the building at 4:19 p.m. on May 20 and leaving at 5:41 p.m. The cameras captured a witness confronting the group to tell them to leave the private property. All four were then seen leaving.
As police investigated further, another witness came forward to tell them that Stevens had allegedly sent them a Snapchat message with a photo of herself that included the caption, "I may or may not have lit the bando on fire today on accident." After sending that message, Stevens allegedly sent the same person a photo of the fire with the caption, "Devastating."
Police said they went to Stevens' address and took her into custody, bringing her to the police station for an interview. After being read her rights, Stevens allegedly told police that she and her three friends went to the rooftop of the building. While on the roof, she reportedly discarded a lit cigarette through a hole in the rooftop. Stevens said that about 20 minutes later, she and her friends noticed "a pile of fallen debris smoking and having visible embers," according to the complaint. She allegedly told police that they stomped out the fire and the smoking subsided. The four then left the building, apparently believing that the fire was extinguished.
Stevens said that when the fire made the news, she told a friend on Snapchat that she may have been responsible for starting it, according to the complaint. Police said Stevens insisted she did not intend to start the fire, but admitted that her actions were negligent.
According to the complaint, the fire lasted for days, and the damage was so extensive that the building had to be razed. The estimated cost of the damages was $975,800.
Stevens made her first court appearance on Tuesday. According to courtroom coverage by local Fox affiliate WITI, the court commissioner ordered Stevens not to "possess any burning materials as stated, so that would include, like, cigarettes, cigars, anything of that nature."
Stevens' next court appearance is scheduled for July 7.
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