Category Archives: Residential

Apartment Building, Residential

San Rafael, CA – Sprinkler system limits spread of apartment fire

Three apartments sustained water damage in a one-alarm fire Sunday in San Rafael, a San Rafael battalion chief said.  The fire was first reported at 9:24 p.m. at 960 Lincoln Ave.

When firefighters arrived, they found a sprinkler had extinguished the fire in one apartment and firefighters went to work to limit water damage, Battalion Chief Kyle Hamilton said.

The apartment where the fire started is probably uninhabitable, which would displace one person, Hamilton said. The other two units are probably habitable, he said.

Residential, Residential High Rise

Madison, WI – Residential high-rise fire limited by sprinkler system; No injuries reported

The Madison Fire Department says the automatic fire sprinkler system kept a fire in the YWCA building from spreading.

Firefighters were called to the building at 101 E. Mifflin Street just before 5 p.m. Saturday evening. The fire department says the fire was in the fifth floor hallway. The first unit in found heavy smoke on the fifth floor, so firefighters activated a second alarm. With the help of the sprinklers, fire crews had the fire under control by about 5:15 p.m.

Everyone who lived in the building was able to return. The Madison Fire Department says the Red Cross helped some families with emergency needs and Metro Transit provided a bus for residents to stay warm while the building was evacuated.

Damage is estimated at $25,000.  The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

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UPDATE (WKOW) — Fire Chief Steven Davis on the scene says the fifth floor of the YWCA, where the fire was located, is residential housing.  The people there have been evacuated.   No one’s been asked to leave the rest of the building, however. 

Crews were able to put out the fire. No injuries are reported – though there is some water damage. 

Investigators on the scene are trying to determine the cause and when the fifth-floor residents can be let back in. 

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MADISON (WKOW) — Madison firefighters are responding to a second alarm at the downtown YWCA location. 

The fire department supervisor on duty says the call came in just before 5:00 p.m. for smoke coming from the fifth floor of the structure at 101 E. Mifflin.

Residential, Single Family Home

Ventura, CA – Fire in single family home contained by residential sprinkler system; No injuries reported

Crews responded to a fire at a home Friday afternoon in Ventura, officials said.  The incident was reported fire just after 3:50 p.m. in the 100 block of South Dunning Street, according to the city of Ventura Fire Department.

Upon arrival, crews found a fire in the kitchen on the second floor of a home and had it extinguished within 10 minutes, officials said. A sprinkler system was activated as a result of the fire and contained it, but caused water damage on both floors of the residence. Three adults were displaced as a result of the fire, officials said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.  There are two homes on the property where the incident was reported, authorities said. The fire was in a house behind the main house, authorities said.

Apartment Building, Residential

Rome, NY – Apartment kitchen fire put out by sprinkler system

No one was injured after food left on a stove resulted in a fire at Liberty Gardens Wednesday morning.  Fire officials said the residents of Apartment 711 accidentally left food unattended on the stove shortly before 8:30 a.m.

The flames spread from the stove top to the oven hood and the upper exhaust hood before the apartment’s sprinkler system put it out, the Rome fire officials added. The fire was out by the time crews arrived on the scene.

The firefighters checked to make sure the fire hadn’t spread further, and helped to clear the water out of the apartment.

 

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Alhambra, IL – Arson fire at nursing home extinguished by sprinkler system

An Alhambra, Illinois woman was arrested for arson in connection to a fire at the Hitz Memorial Home, 201 Belle Street, that occurred Wednesday evening.

Firefighters responded to a call for a fire at the location at 9 p.m. The fire was contained to two inner rooms within the nursing home and extinguished by the facility’s fire sprinkler system. The damage to the two rooms was extensive. Other rooms suffered serious smoke and water damage.

One employee suffered minor smoke inhalation while clearing out patients. She was treated at the scene.  Ten nursing home patients were displaced from their rooms due to the fire. The home has made accommodations for them.

Around 10 p.m., the Illinois State Police received a phone call from a resident at the independent living portion of the Hitz Memorial Home, who reported she started the fire.

Police say Linda J. Braun, 67, admitted that she deliberately started the fire. She told police that she was angry over staff members trying to boss her around. Braun told the investigating deputy that she started the fire in an empty room and didn’t intend to hurt anyone. The fire was started in the nursing home, separate from the independent living facility Braun lived in.

Braun is currently held at the Madison County Jail. She is being held on a $250,000 bond.

Apartment Building, Residential

Evanston, IL – Apartment fire started by careless smoker kept in check by sprinkler system

**NO MEDIA COVERAGE – Fire Department reported** The Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board reports a successful fire sprinkler activation at the Claridge Apartments in Evanston, Illinois at 3:30 a.m. on Monday, May 9, 2016. According to the report, a careless smoker set a pile of clothing on her bed ablaze. She apparently panicked and threw the pile into the bathtub and ran away. The sprinkler head above the bed extinguished the smoldering mattress. In the bathroom, the shower curtain and towels caught fire. A sprinkler head in the bathroom activated and kept the fire in check until Evanston Fire department arrived.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Rutland, VT – Sprinklers knock down fire in apartment building for elderly and disabled

Four people were transported to the hospital and ten people are displaced after a multi-unit apartment fire in Rutland Saturday.  Rutland Deputy Fire Chief Jim Miles says the call came in just after 4pm from Bardwell House, a multi-unit apartment building for the elderly and people who are handicapped.

The cause of the fire was related to cooking. The fire was contained to one apartment and was mostly taken down by sprinklers, officials say. That apartment sustained fire damage.  Four people were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation.

Nine other rooms sustained severe water damage by the sprinkler system, according to Deputy Chief Miles.  The New Hampshire/Vermont region of the American Red Cross is assisting those affected.

Residential, Single Family Home

Camas, WA – Fire in house under construction is extinguished by sprinklers

A fire started in a Camas home under construction sometime over the weekend, and fire sprinklers installed in the house put out the fire before anyone noticed.

The home, at 3210 N.W. Hood Court, Camas, is in the sheetrock phase of construction, according to an email from Randy Miller, deputy fire marshal at the Camas-Washougal Fire Department, and the fire started in the laundry room wall and burned into the home’s entry way and attic.

Even though there were plastic protective cups over the sprinkler heads to protect them during construction, “the plastic covers still melted away in time for the two heads that were heat activated to control and extinguish the fire,” Miller wrote.

The fire department was called Monday morning after the subdivision supervisor for Pahlisch Homes unlocked the house and saw the damage. Fire Marshal Ron Schumacher and Miller investigated the fire, and “give credit to the fire sprinklers for avoiding to have our fire crews dispatched to a fully involved structure fire with exposures in the form of other homes under construction,” Miller wrote.

This was the fourth Camas house fire put out by a home sprinkler system, according to Miller. At the Camas city council meeting on April 18, the councilors voted unanimously in favor of an ordinance requiring all newly built homes in the city to contain fire sprinklers, although many residents in Camas have been installing them in new homes for more than a decade because of a fee waiver the city put in place in 2003.

Last year, 215 new homes were built in Camas, and all but one of them were built with a fire sprinkler system.

 

Apartment Building, Residential

Kalamazoo, MI – Sprinkler system credited with containing apartment fire to room of origin; No injuries

**NO MEDIA COVERAGE – Fire Department Reported**

Friday night May 6, 2016 at 10:09 pm the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety responded to a report of a fire in an 11 unit apartment building in the 1000 block of Washington Avenue. A couch fire which was releasing a large amount of black smoke and heat was suppressed by the sprinkler system.  The fire was contained to the room of origin.  No one was hurt and after the suppression system was placed back into service the occupants of 9 of the 11 units were safely back into their homes.  The sprinkler system was praised for preventing further damage to the building

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Laurel, MD – Sprinklers put out fire at assisted living home; residents evacuated safely

Fire broke out Monday in the kitchen of an assisted living facility inside a residential home in Laurel, Md. The Prince George’s Co. fire department said four elderly or disabled people were able to escape unharmed, in part, because the home had a sprinkler system that put out the flames before first responders arrived. Residents could be displaced for weeks. News 4’s Meagan Fitzgerald reports.