Fire crews are tackling a hotel fire in northwest OKC.
Officials say the fire started inside an empty room at a SpringHill Suites in the 3200 block of W Memorial.
Crews say there is smoke damage on the first and second floors.
The hotel was evacuated and there are no reported injuries.
All Medina fire stations were dispatched to the manufacturer just after 2 p.m. for a report of a structure fire involving chemicals.
The first crew to arrive found heavy smoke coming from the rear of the building. The building’s sprinkler system kept the fire contained to the room of origin, fire officials said.
All occupants were evacuated and no injures were reported. The Lafayette Township Fire Department and Erhart-York Fire Department also were called for mutual aid and Medina police officers and Life Support Team paramedics were on scene.
FBC, a distribution warehouse, sells the alcohols and commonly used chemicals to make hand sanitizers, hand soap and other cleaning products. Its website said it has provided specialty and commodity chemicals to the Northeast and Midwest United States for more than 50 years.
Fire Chief John Petroskey with the Antigo Fire Department says that there were no injuries reported but there was substantial damage to equipment inside the building. Crews say that a sprinkler system inside the building helped prevent major damage to its structural integrity.
The call came in at 7 p.m. Thursday night with crews battling the fire into the early morning hours of Friday. Chief Petroskey says Bridge Street will be open to traffic Friday morning.
The fire is under investigation with Chief Petroskey saying crews will be back on scene in the morning to check for hot spots.
According to Hutchinson Fire Chief Mike Schumann, a fire broke out in one of the units at the city-owned Enterprise Center commercial business complex at 1164 Benjamin Ave. S.E. A utility cart with flammable paint supplies on it ignited in the building at approximately 6:45 p.m.
The fire activated a sprinkler head, which contained the fire until firefighters arrived and were able to extinguish and set up ventilation to clear out the smoke. Firefighters also assisted with removing water on the floor and salvaging other items.
Schumann said it was a great example of how valuable sprinkler systems can be.
“If it were not for the early warning and activation of the automatic fire sprinkler system, this could easily have been a multimillion dollar loss with a catastrophic impact on the operation of multiple local businesses.”
Approximately 10 people were inside Rodney’s Cigar and Liquor Store at 10th and J streets when smoke filled the store. Investigators believe an electrical fire sparked in the back room.
Crews quickly contained the flames and no injuries were reported.
“The sprinklers went off first, then the alarm went off. I got everybody out of the store as fast as I could,” store clerk Bob said.
Bob says the store has been around since 1923.
Crews worked Tuesday night to repair the sprinkler head system and get it restored.
Earlier, firefighters responded to an apartment complex on C Street after reports of a stovetop fire.
Crews arrived on the scene at 10:27 p.m. to find the fire sprinkler system had contained a kitchen fire in an apartment on Farwell St. The building was being evacuated when firefighters arrived, and the fire was out by 10:45, according to McFarland Fire and Rescue.
Smoke was cleared from the building, and the fire sprinkler was restored. Most of the building tenants were able to return to their units before midnight, but the two adjacent units were relocated for the night to allow water remediation of their units’ fire sprinkler water to occur. The apartment with the fire will be uninhabitable for some time due to fire and smoke damage.
The tenant of that apartment was able to stay with family members in McFarland. The cause of the fire is under investigation and is believed to be accidental.
Damage estimates are pending further evaluation. All building occupants were able to evacuate, and no injuries occurred during the event.
With temperatures below zero on Monday night, Madison Metro assisted by providing a transit bus to allow tenants to remain warm during the incident, while the Monona Fire Department also assisted the McFarland crews.
The cold snap can have some significant effects on fire crews as well.
“The intense cold requires us to provide warm areas for the individuals displaced and the firefighters. Firefighters’ equipment will freeze, including our breathing apparatus, and may need thawing to be used. The firefighters that put the fire out last night had their turnout gear frozen while they were wearing it,” McFarland Fire and Rescue Chief Chris Dennis said. “We will rotate crews more frequently to keep firefighters warm and prevent cold injuries such as frostbite. Additionally, when using hose lines, we have to keep water flowing to prevent freezing in the lines, leading to ice on the ground and slip hazards.”
McFarland Fire and Rescue offered the following safety message to community members after the incident:
“The fire sprinklers contained the fire quickly and initiated the fire alarm system. The fire alarm system alerted the occupants and the 911 center of the fire. Without the fire sprinklers, the fire would have been much larger, and the outcome could have been much worse.”
The City of Williamsburg Fire Department, James City County Fire Department and York County Fire and Life Safety were all called on Saturday, Feb. 6 around 8:45 p.m to an apartment fire that occurred in the 1400 block of Middle Street.
There were 22 firefighters initially called for the incident.
When the first crew arrived on the scene at 8:49 p.m., they said they spotted smoke coming from the second-floor hallway in one of the buildings. This was when firefighters noticed a kitchen fire that had been put out by the building’s sprinkler system, which was in the unit where the fire started.
Firefighters conducted salvage and overhaul operations in the affected apartment and said there was no fire extension found. Additionally, there was no other smoke or fire on the other floors in the building, and the fire was under control by 9:08 p.m.
However, the apartments on the first floor (right under the unit where the fire happened) were affected by water damage, from the sprinkler system.
The apartment complex’s management relocated the two occupants who were displaced from the fire.
The City of Williamsburg’s Community Risk Reduction team is investigating the cause of the fire and said no injuries were reported.
The blaze was reported at about 8:10 a.m. in the 3700 block of Main Street at a restaurant on the ground floor of the California Tower, according to the Riverside City Fire Department.
The fire sprinkler system was able to control the flames until firefighters arrived and doused the remaining fire, Battalion Chief Mike Allen said.
No injuries were reported.
Waco Fire Department units were sent to the scene shortly after the noon hour and found that the fire had not extended beyond the one room.
Waco ISD spokesman Joshua Wucher said the automatic sprinkler system knocked down the fire.
There was some minor smoke damage to the restroom, but Wucher said that none of the students or staff were in any real danger.
Students were allowed back into the building a short time later with classes resuming.
An investigation was underway into the source of the fire.
Smoke spread from the Villa eatery into the adjacent Kim Moon Chinese & Japanese restaurant, 718 Philadelphia St. and upper level apartments at 722 Philadelphia St. above the vacant storefront last occupied by the Europa gift shop.
“Fortunately, this was only 30 seconds from the fire station, so the guys make a really quick hit,” said Ron Moreau, first assistant chief of the Indiana fire department.
Indiana firefighters ran hoses from hydrants at the Seventh and Eighth street intersections and climbed ladders to reach the rooftops to search for any extension of the fire, Moreau said.
“The majority of the heat and damage appeared to be in the kitchen area, said Third Assistant Chief David Smith, the officer in charge of the incident this morning. “The fire was held in check by the sprinkler system. We did have some extension into the roof of the structure which took up the majority of the time because the initial fire was under control in 15 minutes.”
The search for fire under the rubber roofing of the rear extension of the building stymied the crews long after the fire was out in the kitchen. Some were on the scene until about 6 a.m.
Smith said officials were “not 100 percent certain” of how the fire began and referred the investigation to the state police fire marshal office, “just as a precaution being that it is a business.”
Moreau said Villa II would be out of commission for an undetermined time for repair and cleaning. Some residents appeared to have re-occupied their apartments at 722 Philadelphia St. after firefighters controlled the fire.
Smith later said the tenants living above the restaurants also were permitted to return.
Moreau praised the fast response of neighboring companies from Homer City, Clymer, Black Lick, Creekside and Blairsville. Volunteers answered the alarms from the Indiana County 911 center at 12:35 and 12:43 a.m. and teamed up in biting, 23-degree cold to head off the fire.
“We got all of these gentlemen out there tonight because of this,” Moreau said. “We have common basements, common second floors, so whenever you have a downtown fire, you always call for help.”
Tenants of the upper-level apartments all fled safely. Paramedics from Citizens’ Ambulance Service staged from at least two medic units at the scene and said they didn’t have to treat any patients.
Two workers from Indiana Borough Public Works spread rock salt by hand in the vicinity of the fire, wherever water trickled from hose connections and posed a risk of icing on the street.
Indiana County Transit Authority sent an IndiGo bus to serve as a warming station for first responders at the scene.
Well after firefighters pulled ladders back from the buildings, but while officials still searched for possible extension of fire in the ceilings, manpower was drawn down due to an alarm for multiple fire companies on Pizza Barn Road in Derry Township. Blairsville and Black Lick fire departments responded from Indiana along with the Clyde and Tunnelton-Conemaugh Township fire companies when alarms were sounded about 2:45 a.m.