Smoke Fills West Side Building; Unattended Cooking The Cause

The occupant of a west side apartment wasn’t home when the Madison Fire Department arrived to find food burning on the stove.
 
Ladder 7 was originally dispatched to the 800 block of Kottke Dr. to investigate an unknown alarm. On their way to the address the call upgraded to a possible structure fire. One neighbor reported that the building was filling up with smoke.
 
Firefighters found a stovetop burner set on 'high' with meat left inside an unattended pot. The meat had been boiling in water. Once the water boiled away, the remaining food smoked up the apartment.
 
Ladder 7’s crew shut off the stove and ventilated the building. There’s some smoke damage in the unit.

The occupant hadn’t returned home while firefighters were working in the apartment, and the scene was turned over to building management at 3:00 p.m.