Category Archives: Apartment Building

Apartment Building, Residential

Gardiner, ME – Fire Chief credits sprinkler system with saving lives and property in apartment blaze

Gardiner Fire Chief Al Nelson said a working sprinkler system extinguished an early morning fire on Water Street in Gardiner and saved both lives and property. Nelson said firefighters went to the building on the northwest corner of Water Street and Maine Avenue shortly after 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, following notification from a security company.

“They could see light smoke coming from behind a door,” he said. When they opened the second-floor apartment door, they saw a fire on the stove, and that’s when the building’s sprinkler system activated and put out the fire. It’s also when the tenants in the apartment woke up and came to see what was happening, Nelson said.

“The sprinkler system saved lives. It did its job,” Nelson said. “The stove is ruined, but that’s easy (to replace).”

The site of this fire is only a couple hundred feet from the site of a July 2015 fire that destroyed 235 Water St. and it damaged buildings on either side of it.

“At the press conference after the 2015 debacle, I said had that building had a sprinkler system, there would have been no press conference,” he said.

Nearly eight months before the 2015 fire, Royce Watson bought the building where the fire occurred Tuesday.

“It was a distressed property,” Watson said, “and it had a fairly good price, so that enabled me to update the sprinkler and fire alarm systems.”

The building has four retail units on the ground floor and eight apartments on the upper two floors.

Because the building already had a sprinkler system, he said, he had to either make it operational or remove it. He opted to fix it.

The apartment where the fire broke out sustained some smoke damage and the stove will have to be replaced, he said.

Watson, whose company, Wilcris LLC, owns other rental properties in the region, said the water from the sprinkler went into the unit below — his office — soaking his computer and some paperwork and bills on his desk.

While he said tenants share the responsibility for safety, he said he’s glad the system saved the building and that everyone is OK.

“I can’t thank him enough for his efforts on the sprinkler system,” Nelson said. “That saved the block.”

Apartment Building, Residential

Starkville, MS – Possible arson fire at off-campus apartment complex doused by sprinkler system

An early morning fire at a Starkville apartment complex left several units damaged and law enforcement investigating a potential arson case. Lt. Brett Watson of the Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Office told the SDN on Monday the fire was being investigated as a possible arson by the sheriff’s office and Mississippi State Fire Marshal’s office. Oktibbeha County Fire Services Coordinator Kirk Rosenhan said a call was received at approximately 5:28 a.m. Monday morning for a fire alarm at 21 Apartments on Ace Avenue. The fire occurred in building 4 of the complex. When emergency personnel arrived on the scene, they found an unoccupied third floor apartment filled with smoke. Upon further inspection, fire officials determined that a mattress had been set on fire, setting off the unit’s sprinkler system. Rosenhan said there was minimal fire damage in the unit and building, but considerable water damage in the units below where the fire occurred. Management at 21 Apartments declined to comment on the fire

Apartment Building, Residential

Little Rock, AR – Fire at low income housing building controlled with help from sprinkler system

One person was injured in an apartment fire early Thursday at the Albert Pike Hotel in downtown Little Rock. The injuries were not considered life-threatening.  The fire was contained to one apartment on the eighth floor, but it triggered the building’s sprinkler system which flooded some residents’ apartments, according to the Little Rock Fire Department.

An investigation into the cause of the fire was still underway, a Fire Department spokesman said Thursday. Residents of the Albert Pike Hotel have lately raised concerns about the frequency with which false alarms are triggered in the building.  City data show that the Fire Department responded to 500 alarms there since 2015, and more than 50 percent of them were because of unintentional smoke detector activation. “We don’t think twice about [the alarms] anymore,” Brown said.  Brown has lived in the residential high-rise since 2014, and in that time, Thursday’s fire was only the second time the alarms signaled an “actual emergency,” he said.

He and other residents have said they no longer bother to evacuate their apartments when the alarms sound. “My right leg ain’t going to be able to go down eight flights of stairs every time the fire alarm goes off,” Brown said.  Constructed in 1929, the Albert Pike Hotel is a low-income housing complex that allows tenants to use Section 8 vouchers for federally subsidized rent. Residents typically pay about 30 percent of their incomes toward their rent. The U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department pays the rest.

 

Apartment Building, Residential

Racine, WI – Sprinkler system contains apartment fire after magazine fell on unattended candle

At least two tenants were displaced from the Lincoln School Apartments after a fire Thursday evening. The fire at 1130 Carlisle Avenue was reported at 6:27 p.m., according to a news release from the Racine Fire Department.  The fire was reportedly caused by a magazine falling onto a candle.  A resident was reportedly sitting in her recliner when the magazine fell from her chair onto the candle that she had sitting on a metal tray on the floor next to her.  The paper from the magazine ignited, setting the chair on fire. The woman was able to evacuate without injury, alarms notified the other residents of the building and the sprinkler system contained the fire until the Fire Department could extinguish it, according to the release.  The residents had to wait to return to their apartments until the alarm and sprinkler system were back in service.

Apartment Building, Residential

Everett, WA – Sprinkler systems limits spread of early morning apartment fire; No injuries

A sprinkler took care of a small fire in a fourth floor apartment at the Camelot Apartments in south Everett this morning. Crews from Everett Fire with assistance from Mukilteo and District 1 were called to an alarm at about 3:30 AM. A sprinkler in an apartment on the 4th floor activated and stopped the fire but left significant water damage to multiple apartments within the building. The Red Cross is being contacted to provide assistance to several families. No word at this time on the cause of the fire. There were no injuries. Crews are on the scene mopping up.

Apartment Building, Residential

Arlington, TX – Sprinkler system extinguishes apartment kitchen fire; No injuries reported

Residents of the Centennial Court apartments complex were evacuated when a small cooking fire occurred at about 1 p.m. Tuesday at 717 W. Mitchell Circle on the second floor.

The sprinkler system extinguished the kitchen fire prior to Arlington Fire Department’s arrival, Fire Lt. David Tyler said.

Tyler said there was one person in the apartment at the time, and she escaped without injury.

The apartments experienced minimal fire damage, but also sustained water damage from the sprinkler system that extends to the first floor, Tyler said.

Residents were let back into their apartments at about 1:40 p.m. after the firefighters finished their inspection. Cost of repair for damages is currently unknown.

Centennial Court apartments staff didn’t get back to The Shorthorn before publish time.

Apartment Building, Residential

Portland, OR – 6th floor apartment fire extinguished by sprinkler system

A man was taken to a hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation Wednesday after a fire broke out in a Northwest Portland apartment.  The man, who wasn’t publicly identified, was the only person injured in the blaze that closed Northwest Everett Street between 20th and 21st avenues, said Lt. Rich Chatman, a Portland Fire & Rescue spokesman.  Chatman said a couch in a sixth-floor unit caught fire and that the building’s sprinkler system extinguished the flames.  The building was evacuated as a precaution, Chatman said. Firefighters efforts were hampered briefly by one resident who did not want to leave the building, Chatman said. The man had a weapon but the confrontation ended peacefully, he said.  Firefighters responded to the fire around 3:50 p.m. Some began leaving the area within an hour.

Apartment Building, Residential

Wisconsin Dells, WI – Apartment fire knocked down by sprinkler system; Fire started outside unit

A sprinkler system kept a small fire from being much worse last Sunday in Wisconsin Dells. Kilbourn volunteer firefighters responded to reports of an outdoor blaze at the three-building Stepping Stones complex on Vine Street near downtown.  Thanks in large part to the main apartment building’s built-in, outdoor sprinkler, plus quick action with a fire extinguisher by a Wisconsin Dells police responder, the fire was mostly out by the time the firefighters arrived.  “By the time we got there the sprinkler system had knocked it down pretty well,” said Kilbourn Assistant Fire Chief Pat Gavinski.  The building occupants were not at home at the time, Gavinski said, and the cause of the outdoor fire is still undetermined but it did start outside.  The built-in sprinkler’s role in controlling and ultimately extinguishing the blaze was certain in the mind of Gavinski and Dells Fire Inspector Jerry Wolfram

Apartment Building, Residential

Hickory, NC – Sprinkler system extinguishes overnight apartment kitchen fire; No injuries

Hickory firefighters were dispatched to a reported fire alarm at Kenworth Hall located at 426 2nd Ave SE. Firefighters responded with two engines, one ladder, one rescue truck, and two command units.  The first crew arrived to find heavy smoke on the second floor of the apartment complex. Firefighters also found the sprinkler system had activated and extinguished the fire in the kitchen. Firefighters worked to remove the smoke from the building and minimize the water damage. One apartment was damaged by the fire and two apartments sustained water damage, the Red Cross responded to assist the tenants. There were no injuries.