All posts by viking210

Hotel / Motel, Hotel / Restaurant

Riverside, CA – Hotel fire in third floor linen closet extinguished by sprinkler system

A small fire that broke out Friday in a Riverside hotel after a holiday lighting ceremony was quickly extinguished by a fire sprinkler, officials said.  Fire officials noted smoke and an electrical burning smell in the Mission Inn Hotel lobby and upper floors shortly after an annual switch-on Christmas lighting ceremony took place, the Riverside Fire Department said in a press release.

A sprinkler in a third-floor linen room was activated and the fire was quickly extinguished, officials said. Fire crews shut down the sprinkler and water seeped through the floor, leaking into the second and first floors of the hotel.

Visitors and guests were temporarily displaced from the hotel and were allowed back into their rooms when the leaks were controlled.  Discarded fireworks debris from the Festival of Lights switch-on ceremony was ignited in a trash can and started the fire, investigators said.

Mission Inn officials said they will continue in-house salvage operations. Initial reports stated that only two guest rooms had water damage. There were no reported injuries.

Other - Retail, Retail

Everett, WA – Sprinkler system activates to help control Black Friday fire at Toys R Us store

The Everett Mall Toys R Us store was closed by a smoky fire on Friday morning. Store employees called 911 and safely evacuated all customers from the building after seeing flames in a stockroom. The fire activated a sprinkler and workers tried to put out the fire with extinguishers but were unsuccessful.

When firefighters arrived at about 7:45 a.m., they found heavy smoke inside the store. After the fire was extinguished, fans were brought in to remove the smoke.  The cause of the fire is under investigation, but it is not considered suspicious.  Managers had not decided whether to try and reopen the store later on Black Friday.

Apartment Building, Residential

Wilmington, NC – No one hurt in Thanksgiving day apartment fire controlled by sprinkler system

Fire officials were on the scene of an apartment fire in Wilmington on Thanksgiving Day.  It happened on Litchfield Way on Thursday afternoon shortly before 2.

Authorities say an apartment on the third floor caught fire while at least one person was home, but no one was hurt. That apartment is a total loss, while other nearby units suffered water damage from the sprinkler system.  There is no word yet on what caused the fire.

Manufacturing, Manufacturing Plant

Adairsville, GA – Fire caused by malfunctioning boiler in manufacturing plant contained by sprinklers

1 Comment

A fire that broke out at a LG Hausys plant on Monday was determined to be caused by an internal malfunction on a boiler inside the plant.  Gordon County Fire and Rescue responded to the plant, located at 310 LG Drive, after calls for a fire were made around 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 23. Upon arrival, firefighters noted smoke showing on the backside of a large manufacturing building.

According to the incident report, maintenance personnel for the facility told fire officials that the area on fire was in a thermal boiler room, and upon further review, officials reported that there was obvious sprinkler activation, which had contained the fire to the area and prevented extension into the main facility.

Utilities were terminated in the area for salvage and overhaul to begin. Crews reported that it appeared a boiler had malfunctioned, causing the fire.  Portions of the wall and exhaust system were then removed to ensure fire damage had not escaped the boiler room.

Upon investigation, it was determined that the boiler had an internal malfunction that caused an oil line to fail, causing the fire around the ductwork of the boiler.  The boiler was leaking heavy oil and mitigation efforts were taken to minimize the spread of the oil into a runoff.  Further inspection revealed the roof had been compromised with thermal damage.

Fire Protection Services were then contacted to repair and reroute the protection systems to the manufacturing facility. Once completed, the facility was turned over to maintenance and management. According to the report, the fire caused approximately $14,000 of damage. No injuries were reported during the accident.

Apartment Building, Residential

Manchester, NH – Sprinkler system controls apartment fire started by careless disposal of cigarette

The careless disposal of smoking materials sparked a trash can fire that caused an estimated $7,500 in damage to a West Side apartment building Thursday, authorities said. Fire crews discovered smoke and water coming from under a closed door to Apartment 346 at The Lofts at Mill West, 195 McGregor St., just before 7 p.m., according to the fire department. Firefighters discovered a fire in a trash can in an unoccupied apartment. The automatic sprinkler system held the fire in check until firefighters extinguished the remaining flames. The resident who lived there was in another section of the building at the time, authorities said. Smoke was beginning to fill the corridors and people were evacuating the building. Brady Sullivan Properties owns the building, which recently had been refurbished into upscale apartments.

Manufacturing, Other - Manufacturing

Lyndhurst, NJ – Sprinklers control fire in adjacent building after recycling plant fire jumps road

Two firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion and a third suffered a minor leg injury after they responded to a stubborn blaze that tore through a paper recycling plant on Page Avenue on Thursday, authorities said.

A skeleton crew of two workers was inside the NYNJ Recycling plant at 800 Page Ave. when the fire started but escaped without injury, said Chief Paul Haggerty of the Lyndhurst Fire Department.  A firefighter is taken away from the fire in Lyndhurst on a stretcher Thursday, Nov. 26, 2015.

The fire was reported around 11:30 a.m. and quickly went to a third alarm. At one point, the flames jumped across Page Avenue and caused minor damage to a plastics company in the industrial area, but a sprinkler system kept the fire in check and firefighters managed to save that building, Haggerty said.

Part of the large, flat-roofed brick building that housed the recycling company collapsed during the fire. About 50 firefighters from Lyndhurst and surrounding communities battled the blaze, Haggerty said.  Smoke from the fire billowed out of the structure and spread through much of the township. A Bergen County hazmat team tested air samples but found no harm to the public, the fire chief said.

Haggerty said he was out on a coffee run for his family just before the fire was called in. Although he couldn’t join his family on time for Thanksgiving dinner, his wife, Corrine, brought the food to him and his crew at the scene. She handed him a heated container filled with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and corn. “I packed extra forks for the guys, just in case they’re hungry,” she said.

The cause of the fire remained under investigation late Thursday afternoon.

 

The plant was formerly operated by Jem Sanitation Corp., a company that had ties to organized crime, according to a 2011 report by the state Commission of Investigation.

Other / Not Specified, Other Business

Los Angeles, CA – Challenging fire at commercial building held in check with help from sprinkler system

Fire burned for more than an hour in a one-story commercial building housing a makeup wholesaler in downtown Los Angeles, firefighters said today.  Nearly 100 firefighters worked on the blaze, which started outside the building and then spread inside.

No injuries were reported at the fire, which was reported at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at Max Makeup Cherimoya at 813 S. Gladys Ave., between San Pedro Street and Central Avenue, according to Brian Humphrey of the Los Angeles Fire Department.

A total of 95 firefighters responded and put the fire out in 61 minutes, containing the flames to the structure, Humphrey said. Firefighters’ efforts were complicated by dense storage conditions and “entrenched flames” inside the building, Humphrey said. However, firefighters were also helped in their battle by a sprinkler system which assisted in keeping the fire in check, Humphrey added.

Hotel / Motel, Hotel / Restaurant

Chambersburg, PA – Sprinkler system controls fire at La Quinta Inn until fire crews arrive

1 Comment

The fire broke out around 8:20 a.m. Wednesday at the La Quinta Inn and Suites in the 100 block of Walker Road in the borough, said Chambersburg Deputy Fire Chief Dustin Ulrich in a news release.  A sprinkler system helped control the blaze until crews were in place, and the fire was under control around 10:25 a.m., Ulrich said.

Fire crews arrived to find that a mulch fire had extended to the building, Ulrich said. The fire quickly spread to the third floor of the building and the attic before a second alarm was requested around 8:50 a.m.

The state police fire marshal ruled the fire accidental. No estimate was immediately available as to the amount of damage, Ulrich said, adding that the building was uninhabitable until repairs can be made.

No injuries were reported to either firefighters or to the 25 families occupying the hotel. Crews from the Franklin Fire Department, Fayetteville Fire and EMS, Marion Fire Department, Letter Kenny Fire Department, New Franklin Fire Department, Waynesboro Fire Department, Greencastle Fire Department, West End Fire and Rescue, Mont Alto Fire Department, Cumberland Valley Hose Company, Vigilant Hose Company and Holy Sprit EMS responded to the fire.

Office Building, Other Business

Las Vegas, NV – Suspicious fire at business doused by sprinkler system

A man stole a security guard’s truck while the guard was responding to a fire alarm Wednesday morning. The guard was doing a routine check when a fire alarm started going off. He then found a suspicious man standing around who he believes was trying to break into a business.  The man said he just got out of the hospital and wants to get to California.  While the guard was questioning him, the man then took off with the guard’s truck, which was still running.   “He bolted back to my truck and took off with it,” said Otis Linton, the security guard.

The fire started around 1 a.m. in the 6100 block of Brent Thurman Way, near Sunset Road and the 215 Beltway. Upon arrival, firefighters saw no visible fire or smoke coming from the structure but the sprinklers were activated. There was a small fire in offices that were under construction.  The fire is under investigation.