Update 1/6/26 @ 3:55 p.m. – The Rock County Sheriff’s Office provided the following update on January 6: “The fire investigation into the Lake House Inn remains open and ongoing. However, the investigation does not [emphasis added] indicate the Lake House Inn fire and the residential fire on East Road 5, which occurred the day prior, are related.”
Editor’s note: The following press release was received from Lakeside Fire-Rescue. An extensive history of the structure and businesses located there may be found on the current website of the business. The very old photo on the homepage is from that website.
Lakeside Fire-Rescue and the Rock County Sheriff’s Office were alerted by the Rock County 9-1-1 Center at 8:28 p.m. on Sunday, January 4th, of a 9-1-1 call reporting smoke coming from the apartment above the Lake House Inn at 1612 East Hotel Drive in the Maple Beach subdivision in the Town of Milton. [Many would know the location as the unincorporated community of Newville.] The caller initially reported just smoke, but 9-1-1 began receiving multiple calls from people in the area reporting fire now visible from the back of the restaurant portion of the buildings, and eventually reporting fire through the roof above the kitchen area. Lakeside Fire-Rescue units from Stations 2 (Edgerton) and 3 (Milton) were dispatched.
The first arriving law enforcement officer on scene at approximately 8:37 p.m. confirmed heavy fire from the back of the building. Based on the information being received by the 9-1-1 Center Lakeside Fire-Rescue immediately upgraded the response to a Mutual Aid Box Alarm System (MABAS) “Box Alarm” at 8:38 p.m., which added additional fire and support units from Janesville, Whitewater, Stoughton, Delavan, and Deerfield Fire Departments, along with water tenders from Fort Atkinson, LaGrange, Darien, and the Town of Delavan. The Lake Mills Fire Department was also requested to provide an engine and chief to stand by in case of another incident in the Lakeside region. Numerous additional law enforcement assisted the Rock County Sheriff’s Office with control around the scene.
The Rock County 9-1-1 Center was able to make contact with representatives of the multiple businesses that operate out of the complex confirming no one should be in the building.
First arriving fire units arrived within 12 minutes of the original 9-1-1 call and observed a rapidly moving fire spreading through the kitchen and restaurant portions of the building encroaching on the historic three-story bar and former hotel portions. Multiple fire lines were deployed from the back and front sides of the buildings, but the heavy winds rapidly overpowered the efforts of firefighters to keep the fire contained.
Upon his arrival Lakeside Fire Chief Randall Pickering further upgraded the incident to a 3rd Alarm at 8:47 p.m. which added additional firefighting resources from Cambridge and Cottage Grove, and additional water tenders from Watertown, Jefferson, Evansville, Sharon, East Troy, and Troy Center. Knowing the age of the structure and its open flow on the interior Chief Pickering stated, “we knew it was going to take a significant amount of personnel and water to contain and extinguish the fire.”
Early on in the incident two Lakeside firefighter/paramedics were injured when they came in contact with an exterior air conditioning unit that had become energized, and suffered minor injuries from electrical shock. Both firefighters were cared for immediately by personnel on scene which included a trauma doctor from Mercyhealth who responds on larger incidents for the fire units and was already on scene. Both firefighters were held in one of Lakeside’s ambulances for observation, and were later released to return to firefighting efforts.
The roof and 2nd floor over the kitchen and restaurant collapsed into the 1st floor at 9:22 p.m., and fire continued moving through the building and into the historic 3-story bar and former hotel section. The fire was finally ruled under control at 11:04 p.m., although fire crews continued to fight hot spots until approximately 12:52 a.m. Lakeside Fire-Rescue did leave a fire crew on the scene overnight to monitor in case any hot spots flared up.
The owner of the restaurant told fire personnel that the business was open earlier in the day for the Packers game, and after cleaning up he was the last person to leave the building at approximately 6:00 p.m.
Fire and Sheriff’s Department personnel requested assistance from the Wisconsin State Fire Marshall’s Office who arrived on scene Monday morning. Preliminary investigation suggests the fire originated in the kitchen area of the building. The incident remains under investigation with additional investigation resources being brought in over the next week to continue to narrow down the exact area of origin and cause.
The original structure was built in the mid 1850’s and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It has been added on to several times. In its heyday in the last 25 years of the 19th century it was known as “THE summer resort of early Edgerton” according to a story in the “Edgerton Independent” newspaper from 1877.
Due to its age the structure was not equipped with automatic fire sprinklers.
