(WTAQ-WLUK) — The home where a fatal fire broke out over the weekend, killing six people with ties to Northeast Wisconsin, did not hold a Juneau County lodging license. 14 people were in the home, which has been referred to as vacation rental, when the fire broke out. Eight of those people survived.

Pastor dies in house fire that killed six family members after running back inside to save grandchildren - Six family members died when their vacation rental became engulfed in flames

MADISON, Wis. ( WMTV /Gray News) - A pastor who was killed in a house fire ran back inside to save his grandchildren, a family friend said. Steve Witte and five family members were killed in the house fire early Sunday morning. “It was such a tremendous loss, that many deaths within the same family,” Pastor Larry Schlomer said.

Pastor Steve Witte, a missionary affiliated with the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, commonly referred to as WELS, perished in a fire along with five members of his family while at a vacation

According to Church officials at Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church in Green Bay, Steve Witte, a former pastor at the church, was killed in the fire along with 5 members of his family.

The fire broke out just before 2:30 a.m. at a vacation rental where the family was staying near the Wisconsin Dells.