The sprinkler system activated and the fire was quickly extinguished. The extent of the fire damage to the building is not yet known, but books and other library materials do not appear to have been damaged by the sprinkler water, the release states.
The building was safely evacuated and no one was injured. The library will remain closed through Thursday, and possibly longer, depending on how much cleanup is necessary.
Hold times and due dates will be extended accordingly.
Crews were called at about 8:30 a.m. to the Greyhound bus station on Tulare Street and Santa Fe Avenue where flames from outside the building set off fire sprinklers, Battalion Chief Devin McGuire said.
Crews found two windows had been broken from the outside where the fire originated, McGuire said, and witnesses pointed out a man in the area who may have started the fire.
Firefighters worked to replace a damaged sprinkler, pushed pooled water out of the building and investigate the potential arson, he said.
Greyhound was not open at the time of the fire, according to fire crews.
The bus company rents the northern most space of the Spanish mission-style structure that also houses the Amtrak station in downtown. The city owns the building, McGuire said.
“It’s definitely a suspicious fire any time you do have a fire that starts on the exterior of the building,” he said.
The damage is not expected to affect daily business for the depot, he said.
The historic Santa Fe Railroad Depot building was completed in 1899.
Fire departments from several surrounding communities were called at 6 p.m. to 8600 Green Bay Road to the municipal center’s public works building, which houses snow plows and other vehicles. The fire reportedly began inside a newer dump truck used in snow plowing operations, according to authorities on scene. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Pleasant Prairie Fire units arrived at 6:08 p.m. Minutes earlier, a police officer in the area noted “heavy black smoke” coming from the building, according to Fire Chief Craig Roepke.
Also responding to the fire were Zion, Winthrop Harbor, Beach Park and Newport fire agencies, he said. Bristol Fire and Salem Lakes assisted with a “change of quarters” to cover potential calls while village firefighters were out at the fire scene. The fire was under control at 6:18 p.m. and out at 6:24 p.m., he said.
“It appears that it was a vehicle fire that started in the engine compartment and at this time that’s all that we know,” Roepke said.
“Generally speaking, vehicle fires in the engine compartment spread rapidly. Typically, for a vehicle fire we don’t call all those units, but the fact that there was a vehicle fire inside a structure — that’s the indicator for additional units because if the vehicle sets the structure on fire, now we have building fire,” he said.
Roepke said the fire was contained to the vehicle itself and there was no damage to the structure or “any other vehicle” in the large storage building.
“The public works vehicle storage garage … is a sprinklered building. And the sprinkler system did activate and kept the vehicle fire in check until arriving units were able to extinguish (the fire),” he said.
Damage estimates have yet to be determined. He said the vehicle chassis is “likely a total loss” however, other components may still be salvageable. Public Works Director John Steinbrink Jr. also responded to the scene.
The Prange center campus also houses the village Police Department and 9-1-1 dispatch in a building just to the north of the public works structure, but were not affected by the fire.
Firefighters arrived on scene to discover that a computer located in the Clerk of the Court’s office in the North Wing had caught fire, which had spread to a cabinet area. The sprinkler system was activated, helping to extinguish the flames. However, the Clerk of the Court and Register of Wills offices now have significant water and smoke damage.
Talbot County Manager Clay Stamp says disaster clean up company Royal Plus dispatched dozens of trucks and workers to assist with clean up. “At this point in time, the water has been removed and the air has been scrubbed in the main part of the courthouse. So, the court rooms should be open in the next several days,” he said.
The Talbot County Courthouse Finance Office, Circuit Court, Clerk of Court, and Register of Wills offices remained closed Monday. The South Wing of the Courthouse including the offices of Administrative Services, County Council Office, County Manager’s Office, County Attorney’s Office, and Information Technology opened as normal.
Court rooms are expected to reopen in the next several days, according to Stamp. But, the Clerk of the Court and Register of Wills offices could remain out of service for longer. “The best option is to check the website for both the register of wills and the Talbot County clerk of court. There will be information posted every day as to the status of where they are,” said Stamp. “We will do everything necessary to get services back up and running as quickly as possible.”
Stamp says right now, county officials are trying to figure out how quickly they’ll be able to open up the second floor of the courthouse. He adds they’re appreciative to the first responders and royal plus for assisting in the clean up.
“The incident is currently under investigation,” said Sarah Thomas, King County Library System public relations specialist, in a Thursday afternoon email. “It will remain closed today (Thursday). We are unable to give a reopening date at this time.”
The Kent Library is at 212 Second Ave. N.
Puget Sound Fire responded to a sprinkler water flow alarm just before 6 a.m. Thursday, said Pat Pawlak, Puget Sound Fire spokesman.
“Firefighters arrived and found that that had been a fire in the book drop,” Pawlak said. “A single sprinkler head activated and extinguished the fire. The cause of the fire is under investigation.”
People looking to use a local library can visit the Kent Panther Lake Library, 20500 108th Ave. SE, which also is part of the King County Library System.
A Colchester Fire District building is closed because of damage from an early morning fire Friday.
The Colchester Fire Department says it responded to the District #2 building just after midnight for a sprinkler/water flow alarm. They say this building shares a parking lot with the Mallets Bay station on Church Road. When they got there, the fire was showing from the roof. Crews say thanks to properly placed sprinkler heads, the fire was able to be contained.
Because of water damage in the office, the building will be closed for an unknown amount of time, but they can still be reached by phone for water-related emergencies.
The cause is currently under investigation but is not considered suspicious.
Winnetka Fire Department personnel responded to an alarm at the building, 739 Elm St., March 28 at 3:46 a.m., according to Chief Alan Berkowsky.
Upon arrival, they discovered smoke coming from the building’s basement and located the fire in a corner of a utility room, Berkowsky noted.
“The fire was contained by a single sprinkler head, which held the fire in check,” Berkowsky said. “Once we powered the (electrical) grid down, we extinguished the fire. If it wasn’t for the sprinkler head and the fire alarm system doing what they were supposed to be doing, I think that building would have had significant fire damage.”
No injuries or substantial damage was reported, according to authorities.
Fire officials found a small rubbish fire on the fifth floor of the Leighton Criminal Court Building around 12:10 a.m. that had been extinguished by the sprinkler system.
The fire’s cause has not been determined.
Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said authorities are investigating.
The fire alarm went off around 11 p.m. at headquarters. A small fire had started on a desk of the second floor Investigations Bureau and was extinguished by the building’s sprinkler system.
Huntington Police Chief Ray Cornwell said the fire appears to be electrical, but it will be investigated by Huntington Fire Marshal Mat Winters.
The Huntington Fire Department responded to the scene.
There were no injuries. Repairs will need to be done to address water damage from the sprinklers.
A portion of the South Dakota State penitentiary was damaged by a fire Friday night.
Authorities were called to the carpentry shop in the penitentiary at 10 p.m. after prison staff noticed the fire on security cameras, according to scanner traffic.
Staff responding to the fire encountered smoke, and the fire department was called, according to a release from the Department of Corrections.
The Sioux Falls Fire Department and a sprinkler system extinguished the blaze by 10:45 p.m., the release said. No staff or inmates were in the shop at the time of the fire and there were no injuries.
The carpentry shop suffered fire and smoke damage, but the amount of damage hasn’t been determined, the release stated.
The carpentry shop is part of Pheasantland Industries, which provides work opportunities and job skills for state prison inmates and makes road signs, customized wooden furniture and printed products.
