Category Archives: Residential High Rise

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Rockford, IL – Sprinkler system extinguishes fire at high rise apartment building; No injuries reported

The Rockford Fire Department says no one was hurt after a fire in a high-rise apartment building in downtown Rockford Friday.

RFD says firefighters were first called to the Olesen Plaza apartments in the 500 block of N. Church St. at around 4:40 p.m. Friday for the smell of smoke and alarms going off on the third floor of the building.

As first responders were on their way to the scene, people on the third floor noticed water coming from under the door of the apartment where the fire had happened.

As crews got to the scene, they found moderate smoke coming from the window of the third-story apartment. As they got inside, firefighters found a small dire that had been put out by the building’s sprinkler system.

The person living in that apartment was not present at the time of the fire. No residents, pets, or firefighters were hurt during the fire and following evacuation.

Fire crews worked with members of the Rockford Housing Authority, which owns Olesen Plaza, to clear out the smoke and to drain the water after the sprinkler system was shut down.

RFD officials say the fire was caused accidentally by “careless smoking.” Investigators estimate the damage caused by the fire at $65,000.

Olesen Plaza is 14 stories tall and houses around 140 people, according to the Rockford Fire Department.

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Austin, TX – Sprinkler system keeps high-rise fire under control until fire crews arrive

Firefighters knocked down a high-rise fire in downtown Austin early Thursday morning.

The Austin Fire Department says it started around 3 a.m. from improperly discarded smoking material in an apartment at 901 West 9th Street, just a few blocks north of Whole Foods Market.

Austin Fire reports the sprinkler system kept it under control until they got there.

ATCEMS transported one person to the hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation.

In total, three people are displaced.

One apartment has fire and water damage; another has water damage.

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Tempe, AZ – Sprinkler system activated for fire at high-rise apartment building; No injuries reported

About 200 residents had to be evacuated Sunday night after a fire sparked at a high-rise building in Tempe.

Firefighters responded to the scene at a residential building near 6th Street and Mill Avenue.

The fire was quickly upgraded to a 3rd-alarm fire which prompted more crews to respond. At one point, we’re told 250 firefighters were on the scene from six different cities.

Fire officials say it started when a fire sparked in a 9th-floor unit. It caused the sprinkler system to go off which contained the flames to a single unit.

The was water damage on the 9th, 8th, and 7th floors. A total of 5 units were displaced.

Sometime after midnight residents were allowed to reenter their homes.

Details of what sparked the fire haven’t been released.

There were no injuries reported.

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Houston, TX – Sprinkler system activated for high-rise apartment building fire; No injuries reported

WHAT: High-rise apartment building fire

WHEN: November 9, 2021 at 11:27 a.m.

WHERE: 7575 Bellaire, 77036

INJURIES: No reported injuries.

PROPERTY SAVED: $45 thousand in estimated property saved.

DAMAGE: $5 thousand in estimated damage.

CAUSE: Unintentional – heat source too close to combustible.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Firefighters arrived on scene within six minutes to find a fire near a trash chute in the maintenance area on the sixth floor of a high-rise apartment building. Paper goods were placed near an electrical plug which appeared to have started the fire. The fire was kept in-check by a fire sprinkler head until HFD arrived on scene. Firefighters from Stations 21, 28, 68, 83, 10, 60, 73, 51, 37 and 57 responded to this incident.

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Fresno, CA – Sprinkler system controls high-rise building fire until fire crews arrive

Firefighters worked to contain a fire that broke out inside a historic high-rise building in downtown Fresno on Sunday.

Around 4:00 p.m., the Fresno Fire Department says a fire engine responded to the Pacific Southwest Building near Fulton and Mariposa avenues after receiving a report that a sprinkler system was going off on the 14th floor.

When firefighters arrived, they found an alarm sounding inside of the building as residents made their way safely outside.

Firefighters made their way up to the 14th floor, where they called for a 2nd-Alarm after finding smoke.

After a 2nd-Alarm was called, several more fire engines arrived and could be seen surrounding the 16-story building.

The sprinkler system was able to keep the fire under control until firefighters could arrive and put it out.

Fire officials say investigators are working to figure out what started the fire.

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Richmond, VA – Sprinkler system activated for fire at high-rise; No injuries reported

Officials said a two-alarm fire at a high-rise in Shockoe Bottom started in a unit’s kitchen Sunday morning.

Crews were called to the Jackson Warehouse Apartments at 12 South 17th Street for an apartment fire just before 8:30 a.m.

When firefighters pulled up, they saw heavy smoke coming from the building’s sixth floor.

“A second alarm was declared, due to this being a high-rise building,” fire officials said. “Crews quickly got the incident under control and assisted evacuating occupants of the building.”

Firefighters credited the building’s sprinkler system in helping prevent the fire from spreading to other apartments.

Officials said the fire likely started in one unit’s kitchen.

Officials said one person was “briefly stuck in an elevator” when power to the building was shut off, “but our crews got them out with no issues.”

No one was injured, officials said.

The Red Cross is helping one person who was displaced, according to fire officials.

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Windsor, ON, Canada – Fire at residential building controlled thanks to fire sprinkler system

A fire at a multi-unit residential building downtown Windsor was quickly under control thanks to fire crews and the building’s sprinkler system.

Fire crews responded to the blaze at the Salvation Army on Church and Park Street West, according to AM800, smoke could be seen rising from the back of the building.

Attack efforts were underway by firefighters around 3:30 p.m. with crews reporting the flames were under control about 15 minutes later.

Windsor Fire and Rescue Service says the building’s sprinkler system “did a great job controlling fire spread.”

The fire was out by 4:40 p.m., crews were venting out the smoke and an invesitgator is attending to determine origin and damages.

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Niagara Falls, NY – Fire sprinkler helped suppress fire on 15th floor of high rise apartment building

A driver for the Meals on Wheels program helped avert a potential tragedy in an apartment building in the 900 block of Cedar Avenue late Friday morning.

Falls firefighters said the driver was making a lunchtime delivery on the 15th floor of the Niagara Towers apartment building when he discovered a fire there.

“He saw smoke coming out of an apartment and a person on the ground,” Falls Fire Chief Joe Pedulla sad.

Pedulla said crews from the 10th Street Fire Station, just around the corner from the apartment building, were returning to their hall at the time the fire call came in.

“It’s ironic but they had spent the morning at the fire training tower working on high-rise structure fires,” the fire chief said. “It’s mot something we train for extensively, but the timing was good today.”

As firefighters arrived on the scene, they found the Meals on Wheels driver and the occupant of the 15th floor apartment outside the building on the front lawn. Both were suffering form smoke inhalation. “(Firefighters) saw smoke coming out of the 15th floor, and the driver had helped the resident downstairs,” Pedula said. “We feared that they might be more people on the 15th floor with smoke inhalation.”

But when firefighters arrived on the 15th floor they found no additional victims.

The driver and the occupant of the apartment were hospitalized for treatment.

Pedulla said firefighters attached a hose to a 14th floor standpipe and then battled the fire in the apartment. A sprinkler system in the building helped suppress the fire and kept it from spreading.

The chief said the fire damage was “extensive” but limited to the apartment where the blaze began. He said other floors in the building suffered water damage from the sprinkler system.

The cause of the fire was listed as electrical, stemming from an air conditioner being powered off of an extension cord.

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St. Paul, MN – Fire on 10th-floor of residential high-rise contained by fire sprinklers

Hundreds of people were forced from a St. Paul high-rise by a fire on Monday night, but sprinklers helped contain the damage.

The fire started just after 8 p.m. in the 16-story Wilder Park senior high-rise a few blocks from the junction of Interstate 35E and Ayd Mill Road.

Resident Diane Welch said she could hear the fire burning right above her 10th-floor unit as alarms sounded.

“And I knew things were crumbling, because I could hear it in the walls, like if you put sand through a sifter,” she said. 

Deputy Fire Chief Roy Mokosso said that more than 60 firefighters responded to fight the fire and evacuate residents. Paramedics stood by and St. Paul police helped search the building and get residents into waiting buses.

Some residents who could not use the stairs were left in place, due to what the building’s governing board told residents was serious damage to the elevators.

Mokosso said at least some areas in the building had sprinklers and the system had activated. Fire investigators were at the scene on Monday night, trying to determine the cause of the fire.

A high-rise fire at a Minneapolis Public Housing building without sprinklers killed five people in November.

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Hagerstown, MD – Trash chute fire in high-rise complex for elderly and disabled residents extinguished by fire sprinklers; No injuries reported

Smoke from a fire in a trash chute drove residents of Potomac Towers from their apartments Wednesday night, but no one was hurt and there was no serious damage to the building, authorities said.

The cause of the fire at the complex on West Baltimore Street in Hagerstown is under investigation, city Fire Marshal Doug DeHaven said.

Several residents who were exposed to smoke were evaluated at the scene by Community Rescue Service, but none required treatment, according to DeHaven and Hagerstown Fire Department Battalion Chief Adam Hopkins.

The complex consists of two connected, high-rise buildings that provide housing for elderly and disabled residents. The 14-story Potomac Towers North has 200 apartments and the eight-story Potomac Towers South has 126 units, according to the Hagerstown Housing Authority website.

Smoke was reported in the upper floors of the larger building around 8:20 p.m. and an alarm monitoring company reported smoke detectors activating on the seventh and 12th floors. Firefighters arrived to find smoke throughout the building, DeHaven said.

Trash stuck in the chute around the fifth floor was burning, but the sprinkler system in the chute activated and the debris slid down into the bin and compactor in the basement, he said.

“The sprinkler did its job and kept it as a contained fire that we were able to deal with quickly,” Hopkins said. “We would have had a much larger fire in the basement and a more significant smoke condition throughout the building.”

Firefighters extinguished the burning debris in the basement in about 10 to 15 minutes, he said, but were on the scene for a total of about two hours cleaning up water on the third and fifth floors and venting smoke from the building.

Some residents evacuated and others were permitted to go out onto their balconies to get away from the smoke, Hopkins said.

He estimated one group of about 25 people evacuated on one side of the building, and a group of about 40 people exited to the other side.

“We had a significant number of occupants who were affected by this fire,” DeHaven said.

Fire doors between the two buildings were closed, and the smaller building was not affected, Hopkins said.

DeHaven said damage was contained to the trash chute, compactor and bin, and water in the basement flowed into floor drains.

Responding with the Hagerstown Fire Department and Community Rescue Service were units from Funkstown Volunteer Fire Co.,  Halfway Volunteer Fire Co., Longmeadow Volunteer Fire Co., Maugansville Goodwill Volunteer Fire Co., Leitersburg Volunteer Fire Co. and the Washington County Special Operations and Emergency Air units, Hopkins said.