Category Archives: Residential

Apartment Building, Residential

Indiana, PA – Kitchen fire at off-campus apartment complex extinguished by sprinkler system

Damage was confined to a first-floor apartment in a student housing complex near downtown Indiana early Monday afternoon when a fire started in a kitchen and set off a sprinkler, a fire official said. (Jamie Empfield/Gazette photo)

The Indiana Fire Association responded at 12:15 p.m. to a general alarm call at a Philadelphia Square property on the southeast corner of Philadelphia and 10th streets.

The fire began in some grease on a stove then flashed up to the ceiling when a tenant threw water on the fire, said Assistant Chief Ron Moreau of the Indiana Fire Association.

The flame scorched the wall and activated the fire suppression sprinkler, which extinguished the flames, Moreau said.

Indiana officials canceled the calls for backup help from the Homer City, Black Lick and Marion Center fire departments.

Moreau said no one was hurt.

Apartment Building, Residential

Denmark, WI – Sprinkler system prevents spread of early morning apartment fire

Three units of a Denmark apartment complex are seriously damaged after an early morning fire. The Brown County Sheriff’s Office responded at 4:09 a.m. Sunday to the 300 block of Danish Way. The fire started in the kitchen area of one of the units.

No one was hurt. A sprinkler system prevented the fire from spreading to other units. The Red Cross is helping the people who lived in the three apartments that were damaged.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Residential, Townhouse / Condominium

Louisville, KY – Apartment kitchen fire contained with help from sprinkler system

A 3-alarm fire forced residents to evacuate the Brown Suburban Condominium Homes Thursday night. Firefighters responded to the fire at the condo at 3320 Bardstown Road near Goldsmith Lane around 9 o’clock. The fire started in an apartment on the third floor and was contained to that unit, but smoke filled the hallways, and residents were forced to evacuate. Many of the residents are elderly and in wheelchairs, which made the evacuation more difficult, but everyone got out safely.

Firefighters say several apartments have smoke and water damage. Buechel Fire Chief Adam Jones says two people were checked by EMS at the scene.

“We made several medical assists to get them out of there — nobody was transported,” Jones said. “Louisville Metro EMS did check out two different residents that came out — didn’t transport them to the hospital or anything like that so everybody’s safe.”

It took about an hour to put out the fire.

After an investigation, Jones says the fire started when a stove was unintentionally left on after someone accidentally bumped a knob. The overheated stove set a wall on fire,triggering the sprinkler system.

There is substantial smoke and water damage to the third, second and first floors of the building.

The Red Cross helped 10 adults and six children displaced from several apartments with the most damage.

Residents without damage are back in their homes. Others are working with cleanup crews and insurance adjusters.

Apartment Building, Residential

Payson, AZ – Grease fire in apartment complex suppressed by single sprinkler

A family is out of their home after a grease fire Monday night. The fire started around 8 p.m. after a teen living in the home put oil in a pan to fry pinwheels and then walked away. When the 14-year-old returned to the kitchen, the pot of oil had boiled over and started a fire on the stovetop. The fire was making its way up the wall and to overhanging cabinets when a single sprinkler in the kitchen was activated. When firefighters arrived, the sprinklers had already doused the fire.

Battalion Chief Jim Rasmussen said the sprinkler saved not only the kitchen, but likely stopped a larger fire from damaging the whole apartment complex at 209 S. Ponderosa St. Rasmussen warned residents not to leave anything unattended when cooking.

If heating oil, start on a medium setting and increase the heat as needed. Do not start on the highest setting. If a grease fire does start, cover it with a lid if you can safely do so without burning yourself, Rasmussen said. Do not put water on it.

No other sprinklers in the apartment came on. Firefighters shut the single sprinkler off when they arrived. Rasmussen estimated it ran for about 15 minutes before crews shut it off. That works out to about 120 gallons of water. Firefighters helped clean up the water in the unit until a clean up crew arrived. Rasmussen said water damage to the unit would likely keep the family out of the home for a week. The Red Cross will provide the family with assistance.

The unoccupied unit below suffered water damage to its ceiling

Other - Residential, Residential

Hastings, NE – Early morning fire at homeless shelter controlled by sprinkler system; No injuries

Those living in a Hastings homeless shelter were displaced overnight following a fire early Wednesday morning. The Hastings Fire Department says they were called to the Crossroads Rescue Center just after midnight. Smoke could be seen in the building as fire crews arrived.

Staff said all 87 people were out and uninjured when fire crews arrived. The fire was found in the north basement of the building. Hastings Fire Chief Kent Gilbert says the sprinkler system was able to keep the fire from spreading much before firefighters arrived.

Hastings Rural and Juniata Rural firefighters also responded. While crews were working on extinguishing the fire in the basement, others assisted with searching the other floors and reducing smoke damage with ventilation. Part of 14th Street was closed for more than two hours because of the fire.

Adams County Emergency Management was called to the scene to assist with relocating the residents displaced by the fire. The fire department says most were relocated to 20 rooms in the C3 Hotel.

A state fire marshal determined the fire was started accidentally when bedding came in contact with a heater. Wednesday, the shelter was cleaning up after returning to the building around 8 a.m.

“We have great guests here at Crossroads. Everybody pitched in, especially the men, just pitched in. We took up flooring. We cleaned up soot. We took out burnt items. Probably by noon we were mainly cleaned up,” said Crossroads Program Director Daniel Buller.

Buller said the damage is mostly contained to the basement laundry room where the fire started, but work continues to help prevent mold. He said insurance should cover the damage, but the need for things like food and toiletries at the shelter is ongoing.

The estimated cost of the damage is not yet known.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential High Rise

Southfield, MI – Early morning fire in senior high-rise complex put out by sprinkler system; No injuries reported

The all-clear has been given after some scary, smoky moments inside a senior living complex in Southfield early Thursday morning.  Fire crews were called around 3:30 a.m. to Highland Towers off Greenfield Road near Interstate 696 because the fire alarms were going off. Many residents saw and smelled smoke.  Firefighters were door to door on all 12 floors trying to wake everyone up and learn where the smoke was coming from.

“We didn’t know where the fire came from,” says Deborah Taylor-Kiel. “I just smelled the smoke because the doors shut and the fire alarm went off in my apartment where I live, and that’s very scary.”

Eventually, firefighters learned someone threw something down the trash shoot which started a fire in the trash room. The sprinkler system was able to put the fire out.

No one was hurt and nobody’s individual apartment was damaged, so everyone was allowed back in their homes. Some parts of the building have water damage now, though. 

Apartment Building, Residential

Binghamton, NY – Apartment fire contained to one unit with help from sprinkler system

Firefighters spent the evening on the scene of an apartment fire at 58 Park Avenue in Binghamton.

According to the Binghamton Fire Department, apartment 1A caught fire.

BFD officials say the fire damage was contained to apartment 1A, which they say now needs extensive renovations.

BFD says the fire sprinkler in the apartment hallway was activated, but the fire was contained to apartment 1A. Smoke, however, moved up the stairwell to both the second and third floors.

A woman and child were pulled out of an apartment window on the third floor because smoke moved to the third floor, trapping the mother and her son in apartment 3A behind a cloud of thick smoke.

“What I heard was the guy on the first floor, he was leaving the building and the fire was going on in his apartment,” said apartment 3A resident and mother Lydia Lopez.

With the tenant from 1-A already out of the building, it was up to Lopez’s downstairs neighbor on the second floor to alert other residents to the fire on the first floor.

“She said ‘tell everybody get out!’ and he just got out, he didn’t tell nobody get out. So by the time I could get out, the house in 3-A was already flooded in smoke and I couldn’t get out with my son. They had to take me out the window from the back,” Lopez continued.

“The tower took a ladder around to the backside of the building, put it up to the third floor, and rescued the mother and her baby from the third floor,” said BFD Assistant Fire Chief Mark Whalen.

The thick smoke made it almost impossible to see the walls of apartment 3-A and Lopez didn’t want to take her son through the smoke.

Chief Whalen says firefighters arrived 2 minutes after the 9-1-1 call, and had her out of the apartment moments after arriving.

She tells 12 News that after being surprised by smoke billowing into their apartment, she’s lucky to be alive.

“I’m happy they got here on time, cuz other times some people are not lucky to get out alive, so we got out safe and sound, thanks to the fire department,” Lopez said.

Asst. Chief Whalen says the apartment complex was turned back over to the owner and the owner will decide whether or not tenants will be allowed back in before repairs are made.

The exact cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Abingdon, VA – Sprinkler system helps extinguish fire at retirement home

A man was taken to the hospital Friday morning after his apartment in a retirement home in Abingdon, Va. caught fire.

News 5 learned it happened just before 7 a.m. at the Green Spring Retirement Home. The man was taken to the hospital for observation.

The Green Spring Volunteer Fire Department chief said they believe the fire was caused by a rag left on the stove. The fire quickly spread to other appliances causing an estimated $35,000 in damages.

The activation of a sprinkler system helped crews put out the fire quickly.

Apartment Building, Residential

Katy, TX – (No Media Coverage) – No injuries at apartment complex as sprinkler system limits fire to one unit

*** NO MEDIA COVERAGE – FIRE DEPARTMENT REPORTED ***  A fire occurred at the Westgreen Apartments in the 500 block of Westgreen in Katy, TX (unincorporated Harris County). A grease fire caused the activation of one sprinkler head in the kitchen. Fire damage was limited, and contained to the one unit. One sprinkler head completely extinguished the fire, and no injuries were reported.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Lafayette, LA – No injuries at senior apartment building as sprinkler system limits fire to one unit

Dozens of elderly residents were displaced Tuesday night after a fire at the historic Evangeline Hotel in downtown Lafayette. The building is located at the intersection of Jefferson and Vine St.

Lafayette fire officials say it could be a couple of days, maybe even weeks, before residents can return back to the complex, but the 69 residents who were evacuated are now safe and sound at a local hotel.

The fire started in the kitchen of a room on the 4th floor of the six story building around 8:30 p.m. Fire officials say the tenant was cooking when she fell asleep.

“Fortunately, the apartments had a sprinkler system and it activated pretty quickly and extinguished the fire, so the fire was contained to the small area,” said Lafayette Fire Investigator, Alton Trahan, but it’s the amount of water that the sprinkler system produced that caused the evacuation of residents.

“The water damage from the sprinkler system actually went from the 4th floor all the way down to the 1st floor, so you had a lot of flooding in all the units underneath,” said Trahan.

Electrical hazard concerns had prompted the owners to cut power to the building and bring in engineers to inspect the damage.

“A lot of components within that facility need to be examined and once it’s cleared they’ll be able to put the power back on,” said Trahan.

Meanwhile, the displaced residents, initially housed in two hotels, have since been reunited at one local hotel.

“Most of them came last night, a few of them early this morning,” said Shawn Johnson, General Manager of the Ramada Inn. “I think we’re accommodating about 41 people.”

Johnson says they had to do a little moving around, but they were able to squeeze everyone in.

“They all have their own room,” said Johnson. “We’ve included all their meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner all together, so I’m very grateful and thankful we’re able to accommodate them. Most of them came in with just what they had on.”

News 10 also spoke with the on-site manager of the Evangeline Apartments and she said the property is controlled by the Lafayette Neighborhoods’ Economic Development Corporation Board of Directors, who wished not to comment at this time citing that their first priority is the residents well-being.

Fortunately, no one was injured.