Category Archives: Warehouse

Portland, OR – Sprinkler system activated for arson fire outside warehouse; No injuries reported

Investigators with Portland Fire & Rescue say someone intentionally set something on fire outside a vacant warehouse in Northeast Portland on Thursday morning.

There were no reports of injuries.

The fire was reported at about 3 a.m. in the Sullivan’s Gulch area near Northeast 25th Avenue and Multnomah Street, across from Interstate 84.

Portland Fire said the building’s sprinkler system put out most of the flames.

Appling, GA – Sprinkler system activated for fire at Amazon plant; No injuries reported

Fire crews were dispatched to the local Amazon plant located at 2150 Discovery Drive at 11:59 p.m. Monday night.

En route, they were advised that there was a water flow alarm.

When crews arrived, evacuation had already taken place.

Smoke conditions were encountered when entering Division 2 of the building. Crews made their way to the source of the fire and determined that there were 2 sprinkler heads activated.

Crews found some bins that had been damaged by fire and several others with water damage.

Fire was extinguished and water flow from sprinklers reduced.

Power was terminated to the area by Amazon and crews removed as much water as they could.

No injuries reported.

Vernon Hills, IL – Sprinkler system activated for early morning fire at warehouse; No injuries reported

Several departments responded to a smoky fire early today at a warehouse/distribution center in the Corporate Woods campus in Vernon Hills.

No injuries were reported and the cause of the blaze and extent of damage at Automotive Keys Group, 633 Hickory Hill Drive, is being investigated.

The Lincolnshire Riverwoods Fire Protection District was dispatched to the business at 4:24 a.m. through an automatic fire alarm.

First-arriving emergency crews encountered heavy smoke throughout the large warehouse, according to Battalion Chief Steve McCaughey.

The call was upgraded to a working fire scenario, which brought firefighters from the Deerfield, Countryside, Lake Zurich and Long Grove fire protection districts and Buffalo Grove, Lake Forest, Wheeling and Libertyville municipal fire departments.

An automatic sprinkler system was activated before firefighters arrived, keeping the blaze from growing before it could be completely extinguished, McCaughey said. Nobody was at the facility when the alarm was sounded, he added.

McCaughey said extensive smoke hampered crews and a special mobile ventilation unit was used to clear the warehouse and office spaces.

According to its website, AKG is a leading remanufacturer and distributor of replacement automotive keyless entry remotes, other key replacements and related equipment.

In April 2021, the company consolidated locations with Locksmith Resources and Midwest Keyless in a new facility in Vernon Hills featuring centralized distribution and a training facility.

Investigators from Lincolnshire-Riverwoods were assisted by Vernon Hills police at the scene.

Corbin, KY – Sprinkler system activated for fire at warehouse facility

Officials at Webbed Sphere Inc. were alerted to a small fire at the company’s facility that triggered the alarm and sprinkler systems about 3 a.m. Tuesday morning.

“Webbed Sphere really appreciates the first responders who arrived so quickly to ensure everyone’s safety,” said Jon Huston, founder of Webbed Sphere. “Their professionalism and dedication are second to none.”

Members of the West Knox Volunteer Fire Department were alerted to the blaze by the building’s alarm system. They were assisted in their response by the Corbin Fire Department.

The fire started in an area of the building leased by a tenant of Webbed Sphere. It was contained quickly by the building’s fire suppression system. There was no structural damage and the fire only impacted a small, 20’x20’ area consisting of a workstation and some shelving.

“It was just a lot of smoke from all the products that caught fire,” said John Ward, CEO of Webbed Sphere. “The safety of our employees is the top priority. They did report for work normally (Tuesday), but were reassigned to areas not impacted by the smoke.”

The company expected a full return to normal operations Wednesday.

Fort Wayne, IN – Sprinkler system activated for fire at fireworks warehouse; No injuries reported

The Fort Wayne Fire Department says the cause of a fire in the Phantom Fireworks warehouse off Northland Blvd is still being investigated.

Officials arrived shortly after 9 p.m. on Sunday night and couldn’t see the flames when they arrived but found thick smoke and some fireworks going off when they entered.

A sprinkler head above the fire was keeping it in check and crews were able to put it out quickly.

Officials say that fire damage was kept to a small area in the warehouse. No one was hurt in the fire.

Officials with the FWFD released the following:

A FWFD Engine was dispatched on a Fire alarm at Phantom Fireworks. Upon E15 arrival they found a medium single-story commercial structure with nothing showing from the exterior.

Upon investigating smoke was found inside the structure and a full 704 working fire response was started. Thick smoke was encountered in the back storage/warehouse area with some fireworks lighting off. A sprinkler head above the fire was flowing and keeping the fire in check while crews pulled additional line to completely extinguish the fire.

No extension and nothing else found with a search of the building. There was water and smoke damage throughout but the fire damage was kept to a small area in the warehouse. The fire is under investigation.

Rochester, MN – Sprinkler system activated for fire at UPS warehouse; No injuries reported

A Rochester UPS warehouse and UPS trucks were damaged by fire late Saturday night.

No one was injured, but it will be sometime before an estimate of damages to the packages and their contents, trucks and the building can be tallied.

Firefighters were called to the warehouse at the 1600 block of Opportunity Road NW just before 11 p.m.

An automatic alarm showed sprinkler system flow and smoke in different parts of the warehouse. Witnesses reported to dispatch that they saw flames shortly before firefighters arrived.

Fire crews found fire with smoke coming from the building in a loading dock area on the north end of the building where UPS trucks were parked.

Firefighters called for a ladder truck to help fight the fire from above. Firefighters also cut into some of the trucks that were on fire to put out the fire in the cargo areas of the trucks.

Pulver Towing helped move some of the trucks away from the warehouse in case of fire rekindling from one of the trucks.

Rochester Police Department, Rochester Public Utilities, Minnesota Energy, Mayo Clinic Ambulance Service, Stewartville Fire Department and Byron Fire Department all assisted at the scene.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Pennsauken, NJ – Sprinkler system contains warehouse fire

Firefighters responded to a two-alarm fire at Sonoco Corp. on Aug. 27, the second fire at the same facility reported this year.

The Monmouth Junction Fire Department was dispatched to the Sonoco Corp. at 5 Stults Road off Route 130 in the Dayton section of South Brunswick for a fire alarm activation around 8 p.m. Aug. 27.

Shortly after receiving the call from the alarm company reporting the fire alarm, employees from the business called 9-1-1 and reported an active fire in the warehouse, according to information provided by the South Brunswick Police Department.

Monmouth Junction Fire Chief Scott Smith and Deputy Chief Sean Wert arrived to find a heavy smoke condition inside the building, according to reports.

Firefighters stretched hoselines inside and located palletized goods on fire, which was quickly contained, according to the statement.

A total of 10 fire trucks and over 50 firefighters responded to the two-alarm fire, including firefighters from Monmouth Junction, Kendall Park, Kingston, Jamesburg, Plainsboro, North Brunswick Co. No. 2, Monroe Fire District No. 3 and Hightstown.

Several large trailer-mounted fans from the Edison Fire Department were used to help ventilate the smoke condition created by burning plastic and cardboard.

Firefighters from Brookview, East Brunswick District No. 1, Griggstown and Montgomery Fire Co. No. 2 covered South Brunswick fire stations during the incident.

Ambulances from South Brunswick, North Brunswick and Monroe responded to the fire.

One firefighter was treated at the scene for heat stress and transported to Princeton hospital as a precaution, according to the statement.

“Fortunately, the sprinkler system contained the fire to several palletized stacks of goods in the warehouse,” Smith said in the statement. “It was a humid evening, so we had to rotate our firefighters frequently as they moved goods in the heavily packed warehouse in order to reach the seat of the fire to complete extinguishment. We even had firefighters operating fork-lifts to move unburned product.”

The fire is under investigation by the South Brunswick Township Fire Safety Bureau.

Holyoke, MA – Sprinkler system contains warehouse fire until fire crews arrive; No injuries reported

The Holyoke Fire Department have put out a fire at a warehouse Tuesday night that damaged two vehicles.

According to Captain Kevin Cavagnac, firefighters received a call around 10:00 p.m. Tuesday night of fire and smoke on Winter St. at the ‘A Royal Flush’ warehouse, which stores portable restrooms. Cavagnac said the sprinkler system in the building was able to contained the fire and minimized the damage on the property.

No one was inside the warehouse at the time of the fire but two trucks inside were damaged. No injuries were reported.

The Holyoke Fire Department will continue to investigated what caused the fire.

Las Cruces, NM – Sprinkler system suppresses fire until fire crews arrive

Firefighters dowsed a rubbish fire inside a downtown-area warehouse on Monday. 

Officials said the fire, which started shortly after 1 p.m. on July 5, threatened to consume the entire building and surrounding homes. Dan Trujillo, Las Cruces Police Department spokesperson, said sprinklers in the warehouse suppressed the fire until firefighters arrived. 

“Firefighters entered the warehouse and found heavy smoke and fire along the east wall of the building,” Trillijo said in a news release. 

Trujillo said that no one was inside the warehouse when it caught fire. He said the cause of the fire is still under investigation and that damage estimates are not available.

The Las Cruces Fire Department credits a working sprinkler system with helping prevent the fire from spreading and damaging more of the building,” he said. “LCFD encourages the professional installation and utilization of a sprinkler or fire suppression system in buildings that do not already have such a system.”

Norfolk, NE – Sprinkler system activated for warehouse fire; No injuries reported

Crews responded to the scene of a reported fire inside the MP Global building in northern Norfolk at about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Two rigs from the Norfolk Fire Division initially responded to the scene off of Riverside Boulevard before mutual aid from Hadar Fire & Rescue, Hoskins/Woodland Park and Battle Creek Fire & Rescue were brought in.

The fire started in the southern, warehouse half of the building and was caused by a hot piece of metal inside grinder material, said Capt. Lannce Grothe with the Norfolk Fire Division. Firefighters entered the business from the west side.

Several employees could be seen standing in the building’s west lawn while crews worked the scene. Nobody was injured and all employees had evacuated the building by the time crews had arrived, Grothe said.

No structural damage was done to the building, Grothe said, but the fire caused about $20,000 in damage to equipment.

MP Global’s water sprinkler system and carbon dioxide sprinkler system contained the fire, Grothe said, preventing a far worse outcome. Initial reports led fire crews to believe that they had a much bigger fire on their hands, he said.

“We wanted to call in mutual aid with the possibility of a big fire,” Grothe said. “And, on a hot day like this, you want to have all the manpower you can.”

MP Global employs about 140 people across its two Norfolk plants and 85 at the Riverside Boulevard location where the fire occurred, said Al Collison, owner and chief executive officer.

“I was in shock at first. We have protocol that, when something like this happens, everybody evacuates the building, our systems respond to the fire and then the fire department takes over,” Collison said. “They all got out right away, so everyone is safe.”

About 25 employees were inside the building when the fire started, Collison said.

“It’s a shock; your biggest worry is making sure people are out,” he said.

As of about 3:15 p.m. Wednesday, crews remained on scene and were working to ventilate the building. MP Global, which operates 24 hours a day, was expected to be operating again by 6 a.m. Thursday, Collison said.

The Madison County Sheriff’s Office and Norfolk Police Division also responded to the scene.

MP Global is a cardboard liner company that had to recover from a major fire in 2005 that Collison, the founder of MP Global, said proved to be “the most challenging period of my life.”

Damage was estimated at between $5 million and $6 million. With a stack of orders, Collison said in a 2005 Daily News story that he had to immediately find a site where production could continue almost seamlessly. Within two days of the fire, Collison located a factory in Mexico City, Mexico. Production was moved to Mexico for six months until the Norfolk facility reopened, Collison said.