The rural Wisonsin vacation house where six family members perished over the weekend lacked the licenses to be a rental.
Rev. Steve Witte, his adult daughters Lydia Witte and Charis Kuehl, and his granddaughters Stella Kuehl, Lena Henselin and Merci Henselin were killed in the inferno while other family members managed to escape.
"We require smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors dependent on fuel burning appliances and sleeping rooms. And then there's obviously building code and fire code as well," Ben Jeffrey, environmental health supervisor at the Wood County Health Department, told Channel 3000.
The township of Germantown does not regulate rental housing, but both Juneau County and the state of Wisconsin do. Jeffrey says smaller municipalities are working towards more regulation.
A work session on short-term rentals was listed as an agenda item for an upcoming Germantown planning committee.
The fine for operating a rental site without a license is double the license fee, which depends on the size of the house.
Firefighters found the house fully engulfed in fire.
Neighbors said they heard the children playing in the yard in the pool in the days leading up to the blaze that remains under investigation.
