Hotel / Restaurant, Restaurant

Asheville, NC – Sprinkler system assists firefighters in extinguishing overnight blaze at local pub

An early morning fire at Westville Pub has been ruled accidental.  The fire was reported at 1:15 a.m. Sunday, said Asheville Fire Department spokeswoman Kelley Klope.  The fire started in the HVAC duct work, she said.

The pub, 777 Haywood Road, posted on its Facebook page that it will be closed for the next few days for repairs. According to a fire department report, crews arriving on the scene found duct work in the kitchen on fire and smoke banked down to about waist level. The sprinkler system was activated and with water crews were able to extinguish the fire, then open up the duct work with a roof hook to ensure it was out.

Residential, Single Family Home

Brentwood, CA – Residential sprinkler system contains garage fire at house

Fire crews were called to the 1300 block of Castello Ranch Road around 1:45 p.m. Monday and found a fence on fire between two houses, Battalion Chief Jeff Burris of the East Contra Costa County Fire Protection District said in a statement. The fire also extended into garage of one of the houses.

Crews extinguished the fire on the fence, while the fire in the garage activated a residential sprinkler system that limited the damage to the exterior of the left side of the garage wall, Burris said. Investigators determined that ashes from a barbecue that were thrown into a plastic garbage bag stored next to the fence likely started the fire.

The fence between the homes was destroyed. Investigators said the financial damages to the fence and garage were approximately $50,000.  Nobody was injured.

Manufacturing, Manufacturing Plant

Oak Ridge, TN – Fire in dust filtration system at manufacturing facility is contained by sprinkler system

More than 20 employees were briefly evacuated when a fire alarm sounded in a manufacturing facility where products are made from depleted uranium, but there was no radiological release.  The fire occurred about 9:30 a.m. Monday when dust in a filter system at Manufacturing Sciences Corp., S. Illinois Avenue, ignited.

“All it takes is a spark to set it off,” Oak Ridge Fire Chief Darryl Kerley said.  There’s a built-in sprinkler system that was activated and quelled the blaze. Kerley said there is “negative pressure” in the building where air is always pulled into it and is filtered. “Everything was contained in the building,” he said.

Manufacturing Sciences is also involved in special metals handling.

Apartment Building, Residential

St. Cloud, MN – Sprinkler system douses overnight apartment fire; No injuries

An apartment fire late Sunday caused about $6,000 damage at Empire Apartments, 54 Fourth Ave. N. The person who lived in the apartment left the apartment with the stove on, according to fire investigators. Items on the stove caught fire and burned the cabinetry above the stove. Two sprinkler heads activated and put the fire out. No injuries were reported.

College/University (on campus), Residence Hall/Dormitory

Durham, NC – Residence hall fire at Duke University controlled with help from sprinkler system

About 175 students were evacuated from Randolph Residence Hall on Duke’s East Campus early Monday morning following a fire in a first floor laundry room.  The fire alarm sounded about 2:25 a.m., and all building occupants were safely evacuated to the common room of Blackwell Residence Hall, which is adjacent to Randolph, for about an hour before the building was cleared for reentry.

Duke University Police and the Durham Fire Department responded to the fire alarm, when a dryer caught fire. The building’s sprinkler system engaged causing some water damage, which was primarily limited to the laundry room on the west end of the building and the adjoining hallway. A locked door on the second floor was also damaged when firefighters had to forcefully enter the room to ensure no one was inside, but no rooms were damaged by the fire.

An emergency services company has already begun to address the water damage. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.

Apartment Building, Residential

Riverside, CA – Overnight apartment fire extinguished by sprinkler system; No injuries

Two families were displaced after a sprinkler system put out a garbage can fire at an apartment in Riverside early Sunday morning, Nov. 15.  Riverside firefighters were dispatched to 9800 County Farm Rd. in Riverside about 1:05 a.m., fire officials wrote on an incident fact sheet.

Firefighters discovered that the fire had been in a bathroom wastebasket and had been put out by the apartment’s sprinkler system, the fact sheet said.  It took fire officials two hours to clear the water from the building.  The families were placed in lodging by Red Cross, the fact sheet said. Nobody was hurt in the incident.

Primary / Secondary School, School / University

Cranbrook, BC, Canada – Suspicious fire at middle school limited by activated sprinkler system

The investigation into a fire at Laurie Middle School is ongoing, as school district staff have shut down the building for repairs stemming from a rooftop fire.  Cranbrook RCMP along with Fire and Emergency Services responded to the blaze early Wednesday morning, as fire fighters extinguished the blaze and police assisted with an investigation into the cause.

While authorities haven’t determined what started the fire, it is considered suspicious by the RCMP.  Anyone who has information about the fire is encouraged to call the Cranbrook RCMP at 250-489-3471 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

The Southeast Kootenay school district has closed Laurie Middle School for Thursday and Friday, however, class will be back in session on Monday, Nov. 16.

“The fire damage was limited to the exterior of the building, but it did trigger our sprinkler system, so we didn’t get any fire inside the school because our sprinkler systems worked like they’re supposed to work,” Rob Norum, treasurer with School District 5, said.

While staff and contractors are cleaning that area up to reopen on Monday, the gym was much harder hit.

“The gym is a different story. We’ve got water inside some of the walls and in some of the insulation in the ceiling and some water underneath the floor,” said Norum. “We don’t know the extent of the damage there, but we’re getting that assessed to see if we have to do any major renos.

“We’ve already had an engineer in; he’s going to continue to look at the building to make sure we don’t have any structural issues. We’ve had an air quality expert in and he’s cleared the building.”

Hotel / Restaurant, Other Business

Las Vegas, NV – Sprinklers keep fire from spreading at Sands convention center; No injuries

A vendor booth at an ophthalmology convention went up in flames Thursday night at the Sands Expo and Convention Center, no one was hurt.  Clark County Fire District responded to the alarm at 8:15 p.m. at 201 Sands Ave. The sprinkler system already had been activated. It took about seven minutes to extinguish the blaze, according to a news release sent Friday. Thirty firefighters responded.

Sprinklers kept the blaze from spreading, the news release said. The building was evacuated, and firefighters helped air out lingering smoke. Investigators are still trying to figure out how the fire started.

Manufacturing, Manufacturing Plant

Santa Ana, CA – Sprinkler system helps minimize damage in fire at aluminum manufacturer; No injuries

Fire crews extinguished a fire inside an aluminum manufacturing business Thursday in Santa Ana, authorities said.   Fire Authority officials were called at 2 p.m. to a fire at Aluminum Precision Products in the 2600 block of South Susan Street, said Capt. Steve Concialdi of the Orange County Fire Authority.

The company makes die aluminum forgings for the aerospace industry.  Twenty employees were near a forging press machine when it caught fire. The blaze quickly spread to the roof where a sprinkler system was activated.

“An oily residue kept igniting the fire on the ceiling,” Concialdi said.   The fire was under control by 2:40 p.m.  A Fire Authority hazmat crew contained the runoff mixture of water and chemicals.

Fifty employees were inside the building when the fire broke out, but were able to exit safety. No one was reported injured.  Around 55 firefighters with OCFA and the Fountain Valley, Garden Grove and Huntington Beach fire departments responded to the building.

The cause of the fire was an unknown failure of the forging press machine. Damages were at least $50,000, Concialdi said.  It was not clear if the business would reopen Thursday. More to come.

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