Tag Archives: Washington

Apartment Building, Residential

Bellevue, WA – Sprinkler system helps contain first floor apartment fire; No injuries

A fire at an apartment building in Bellevue displaced seven people on Wednesday night, including five children. Bellevue firefighters responded to the blaze at around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. The fire was located in the kitchen of one of the apartments. The fire department reported the fire at a building along the 1000 block of Southeast 6th Street, which is about two blocks west of Bellevue Way.  The fire department reported that the sprinkler system in the building helped contain the fire.  The seven people displaced included children ages 3 to 15, the fire department said.

Manufacturing, Manufacturing Plant

Spokane, WA – Sprinkler system helps firefighters contain fire at boat trailer builder

Spokane Fire crews responded to a report of a fire at EZ Loader Boat Trailers Friday morning.  The call came in at 8:24 a.m. Crews said initial reports stated somebody was using a cutting torch to cut something metallic. A spark caught a portion of an 8 foot by 10 foot wall on fire.  Fire crews had to pull the wall apart to get to the fire behind. Crews had to do this to keep the fire from extending to the roof.  Crews used hose lines and a pump can to extinguish the fire. Officials said the sprinkler system inside the building went off properly and contributed to keeping the fire contained to one part of the building.   No one was injured in the fire and EZ Loader Boat Trailers will continue business as normal Friday. 

Food Processing, Manufacturing

Kent, WA – Fire in deep fryer at food processing plant contained with help from sprinkler system

A fire that broke out at a food processing plant in Kent Friday night was accidental, a Puget Sound Fire investigator says.  The fire was reported around 10:50 p.m. and started in a deep fryer, Kyle Ohashi with the Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority said.   Firefighters arrived to find flames reaching to the top of the two-story building.   An automatic sprinkler held the fire in check until firefighters were able to put out the flames, Ohashi said.   70 employees were evacuated from the building. Ohashi said the company determined that everyone escaped safety.  No injuries were reported.  At least a portion of the plant will be shut down for an undetermined period of time while crews clean up the scene, Ohashi said.

Primary / Secondary School, School / University

Orting, WA – Sprinkler system help limit damage in early morning fire at high school

All four schools in the Orting School District are on a two-hour delay after fire crews in Pierce County responded to a roof fire at Orting High School Thursday morning. The first call came in shortly after 4:30 a.m. By 5:30 a.m. crews had the fire out. According to the school district’s website, the fire started in a maintenance area above the boys locker room at the gymnasium. Sprinklers went off and contained the fire. It involved the HVAC system. No one was hurt.

“Right now we’re just having crews do an overhaul and waiting for the Fire Marshall to do their investigation,” Orting Valley Fire and Rescue Fire Chief Zane Gibson said. “Both Graham, Central Pierce, and East Pierce Fire and Rescue responded.”  Only the locker room has some water damage. “Sprinkler systems work, they did their job, and kept the fire very small,” Gibson said.  There is no financial estimate on the damage caused by the fire. The gymnasium is in a separate building on the same property as the high school. No classrooms were affected by the fire.

Apartment Building, Residential

Everett, WA – Sprinkler systems limits spread of early morning apartment fire; No injuries

A sprinkler took care of a small fire in a fourth floor apartment at the Camelot Apartments in south Everett this morning. Crews from Everett Fire with assistance from Mukilteo and District 1 were called to an alarm at about 3:30 AM. A sprinkler in an apartment on the 4th floor activated and stopped the fire but left significant water damage to multiple apartments within the building. The Red Cross is being contacted to provide assistance to several families. No word at this time on the cause of the fire. There were no injuries. Crews are on the scene mopping up.

Retail, Shopping Mall

Yakima, WA – Car fire in parking garage prevented from spreading by overhead sprinkler

A car fire in a garage above the former downtown Yakima mall was prevented from spreading by an overhead sprinkler that activated before firefighters arrived Tuesday afternoon.

Yakima firefighters responded to the fire around 2:30 p.m. on the second level of the garage. The sprinkler confined the fire to a single car before firefighters moved in with hoses, the fire department said.

Shift commander Mitch Cole said the fire was accidental. The car’s driver said she heard a pop while leaving the garage and saw smoke coming from the engine compartment, Cole said in news release.

The car and its contents were destroyed. The fire department estimates the loss to be $1,800.

The fire department said there was no damage to the parking garage.

Other / Not Specified, Other Business

Spokane, WA – Security video shows sprinkler system tackling fire at commercial building

A video captures the start of a commercial fire at downtown Spokane business and highlights the importance of having a working sprinkler system. 

It is fortunate that a security camera was positioned in such a way to capture the entire life cycle of this fire. It does not happen very often that fire departments get video that shows how a fire might start, how it progresses, and how it can be controlled in a true, unsupervised everyday environment.

“This video shows how something that starts out small can quickly escalate without the proper fire suppression systems in place,” says City of Spokane Fire Marshal Michael Miller. “If not for the working sprinkler, this fire could have been much worse. This is another example of why we stress the importance of installing and properly maintaining automatic fire suppression and detection systems.”

The video captures a fire that started on January 28, 2016 in the Symons Building (15 S. Howard St.), a four story commercial building. The first indication of a problem can be seen when there is a brief flicker from a light fixture that is located in a main floor storage room. Hot material begins to drip from the fixture to the floor level where it ignited some plastic and consequently moved into the adjacent wood wall. The sprinkler head activated and helped confine the fire to a small area. Fire crews also credit the business for having a clean and orderly storeroom which helped in not providing a lot of fuel to the fire in its earliest stage. Firefighters were able to extinguish the fire within 20 minutes. No injuries were reported. 

Other / Not Specified, Other Business

Auburn, WA – Hallway fire at casino doused by sprinkler system

Between Jan. 9 and 15, the Valley Regional Fire Authority responded to 291 requests for service, among them the following:  Hallway fire: 5:05 p.m., (south Auburn). Having responded to a report of smoke curling out of a room at the Muckleshoot Casino, crews found in a hallway a small fire that had already been drowned by the automatic sprinkler system. Subsequent investigation determined that the fire had been an accident.

 

Grocery Store / Super Center, Retail

Yakima, WA – Sprinkler system contains suspected arson fire at Bi-Mart store

Authorities say a fire that caused an estimated $1 million damage at the Bi-Mart store on North 40th Avenue early Tuesday morning was deliberately set and may have stemmed from a burglary.

Evidence suggests it was arson, said Capt. Jeff Pfaff, spokesman for the Yakima Fire Department, which is working with police to determine the exact cause of the fire and where it started.

Firefighters were called to the store, 1207 N. 40th Ave., at 2:15 a.m. on a report that water was flowing in the building’s sprinkler system. Arriving crews found smoke coming from the back of the building and cardboard boxes burning in a second-story storage area, Pfaff said.

The building’s back doors were open, suggesting someone entered after the store closed for the night, said police spokesman Mike Bastinelli.

A search of the area with a police dog was not successful. It is unknown if anything was taken from the store, Bastinelli said.

Twenty-four firefighters worked to put out the fire, which Pfaff said was confined to the upper storage room due to the sprinkler system. However, smoke went through the building and water pooled in the storage area damaging merchandise, Pfaff said.

Fire officials estimate damage at $1,005,000. Officials said it is unknown how much of the store’s stock, including food, can be salvaged.

The store will close for an indefinite time while it is cleaned up and the merchandise is assessed, said Don Leber, Bi-Mart’s vice president of advertising and marketing.

Leber said the store, which opened in November 1959, employs about 55 people. Some of them will be transferred temporarily to the Bi-Mart on South Fifth Avenue to help with the additional shoppers expected there, while the rest will be assisting with the cleanup at the North 40th Avenue store.

Bi-Mart is also transferring prescriptions for customers of the North 40th Avenue store to its other Yakima location, Leber said. He said the company hopes to reopen the pharmacy in the next couple of days, but people will have to use the outside window.

Bastinelli said Bi-Mart was one of four reported burglaries within a 3-mile radius that police were investigating Tuesday. However, he said Bi-Mart does not appear to be related to the other cases.

Detectives are investigating break-ins at the Conoco gas station at 4708 Tieton Drive; Tom-Tom Espresso, 412 S. 40th Ave.; and the Sunshine Mart, 6712 Tieton Drive, Bastinelli said.

Apartment Building, Residential

Bremerton, WA – Apartment fire caused by cigarette extinguished with help from sprinkler system

A cigarette likely is the cause of a small fire that evacuated the Firs apartment complex Tuesday night, according to Bremerton firefighters. Crews were called to the 60-unit complex, at 183 Russell Road, about 8:45 p.m. and found the fire already mostly out. The building has a fire sprinkler system, which, with the help of a resident with an extinguisher, snuffed the flames.  No injuries were reported. Residents took shelter in surrounding housing complexes as well as within Kitsap Transit buses called in to assist.  The Bremerton Fire Marshal’s Office continues to investigate the fire, but it appears a cigarette in one room lit a bag, which ignited a couch, firefighters said.