All posts by viking210

Food Processing, Manufacturing

Madison Heights, MI – Fire at snack food manufacturer contained by quick response of sprinkler system and firefighters

The Kar’s Nuts factory in Madison Heights had to close Sept. 15 when a fire broke out in the middle of the plant, but the fire was contained thanks to working sprinklers and a quick response by area fire departments.

Around 60 workers had to evacuate the facilities on 14 Mile Road, between John R and Dequindre roads. There were no injuries. The fire started around 7 p.m. in the roughly 300-square-foot room where the stainless steel containers are washed for product distribution. Kar’s Nuts ships a variety of snack mixes and nuts to distributors across the nation.

Four fire departments arrived at the scene, including the Madison Heights Fire Department. Firefighters from a fifth fire department, Birmingham, filled in for Madison firefighters at Station No. 1, ready to take calls for any extra emergencies.

At press time, the investigation was ongoing, but Madison Fire Chief Greg Lelito said he suspects it was an issue with the insulation around the piping that exhausts heat in the washing room.

“It then extended to the ceiling,” Lelito said. “The sprinkler system activated, which contained the fire. We then went in and put out the remainder of the fire with our fire hoses. But it was the sprinklers that kept it in the room of origin.”

While the fire didn’t spread far, the entire building was filled with heavy smoke, which made for limited visibility. The firefighters had to open every window and door, set up fans to circulate the air, and even break out the skylights on the roof in order to vent the smoke. The whole process took several hours. The entire building sustained significant damage from smoke and water. A mitigation company came in immediately afterward to begin work on restoring the facilities.

The plant employs about 200 workers. There were no injuries reported. The company has reported that all of its equipment is in working order, and at press time, production was expected to resume the following week. In the meantime, authorities continued to investigate the cause of the fire. Lelito said it’s fortunate that the sprinklers worked as they should.

“It was manageable, it was smooth, but it just shows you what sprinklers can do,” Lelito said. “City code typically requires that a building over 12,000 square feet is sprinklered. If that building didn’t have working sprinklers, that fire would’ve definitely spread past the room of origin.”

Apartment Building, Residential

Manchester, NH – Sprinkler system helps limit damage in apartment fire; No injuries

Thirty apartments were evacuated Sunday morning after a small fire broke out in a third-floor unit at 195 Eastern Avenue. Manchester firefighters received an automatic fire alarm at 10:58 a.m. Sunday at Hillview Apartments at 195 Eastern Ave. District Fire Chief Mike Gamache said upon arrival crews discovered water and smoke in a third floor apartment. Firefighters located a small fire, partially extinguished by the building’s sprinkler system. 

Gamache said firefighters extinguished the remainder of the fire, then assisted residents in apartments on the first and second floors, where water from the sprinkler system drained onto their possessions. Gamache said extensive salvage operations were performed to save the residents’ belongings. 

No injuries were reported. Gamache said fire and water from the sprinkler system caused an estimated $10,000 in damages.  The property, which consists of four buildings, is owned by Eastern Avenue Associates LLC, with an assessed value of $8,643,200, according to the city’s website.

Residential, Townhouse / Condominium

Scottsdale, AZ – Townhouse fire controlled with help from sprinkler system

Scottsdale Fire Department said a townhouse near 92nd and Cholla streets caught fire Friday morning and a resident was rescued and treated for smoke inhalation. Scottsdale fire crews arrived around 6:30 a.m. and discovered a bedroom fire had activated the unit’s sprinkler system. Firefighters assisted a woman out of the townhouse and paramedics treated her for smoke inhalation. After she was treated at the scene, she was taken to the hospital. Fire department officials did not have an update on her condition. The fire is under investigation. Officials said the townhouse had a smoke detector and one sprinkler was activated above the fire. No firefighters were injured.

Office Building, Other Business

Boston, MA – Sprinkler system activates in spontaneous combustion fire at downtown office building

Firefighters believe a spontaneous combustion caused a small fire at a downtown Boston office building Thursday night, the fire department said. The fire started in a work room on the first floor of 50 Milk St. at about 8:55 p.m., said Steve MacDonald, a Boston fire spokesman.

“It generated a lot of smoke,” he said, but the building was otherwise not damaged, and the Friday workday should not be affected. The department believes some rags in the work room had spontaneously combusted. MacDonald said the rags had some solvents on them and were in a room that was poorly ventilated.

The room did have a sprinkler system, however, which activated when the fire began, MacDonald said.  Fire companies left the scene by about 10:15 p.m. There were very few people in the building at the time of the fire, MacDonald said.

Apartment Building, Residential

Houston, TX – Single sprinkler contains early morning apartment fire; No injuries reported

Fire marshals are crediting a sprinkler system with limiting damage during an early-morning fire at a northwest Harris County apartment complex. A blaze broke out at about 5:30 a.m. Thursday on the third floor of an apartment in the 15000 block of Tuckerton.

The fire triggered a single sprinkler system on the balcony. It contained the flames until firefighters arrived at the scene. There were no reports of injuries, officials said.

“The fire sprinkler did exactly what it was designed to do. Lives and property were saved because one sprinkler head activated and minimized the fire damage,” said Harris County Fire Marshal Mike Montgomery. The cause of the fire was later identified as “discarded smoking materials,” officials said.

Food Processing, Manufacturing

Unalaska, AK – Sprinkler system puts out fire caused by explosion at seafood processing plant

A Dutch Harbor seafood processing plant was severely damaged by an explosion Monday evening a public safety official said was likely caused by the ignition of fine fish-meal dust, though the incident remained under investigation Wednesday.

Mike Holman, director of Unalaska’s Department of Public Safety, said the blast — first reported by public radio station KUCB — occurred inside the Westward Seafoods plant on Captains Bay Road at about 6:45 p.m. Monday. Thirteen members of the department responded.

There were employees inside the building at the time of the explosion, but no injuries were reported. Westward Seafoods President Mark Johanson confirmed employees were in the facility, which he described as mostly “one large open space,” but were thankfully uninjured.

The blast likely occurred when an undetermined ignition source detonated dust from the production of fish meal, often used as feed for other fish, Holman said.

Johanson said the exact cause of the blast was still undetermined, though fish-meal dust was among the possible culprits. He declined to mention other possible causes.

“I don’t want to speculate at this point,” Johanson said. “We’ll do our investigation and obviously we’ll learn from it.”

Johanson said the fish-meal plant was closed for the time being, due to the extent of the damage.

“There’s quite a bit of damage inside the building — some of the pipes erupted, and one of the doors was blown off its hinges into a container,” Holman said.

Holman said no foul play is currently suspected in the blast, which is also being investigated by the state fire marshal. The plant’s sprinkler system extinguished the resulting fire before crews arrived but contributed to damage estimates well beyond the $100,000 first reported after the fire.

“It sounds like the sprinklers, when they went off, they dumped a lot of water on all the electrical equipment,” Holman said.

Johanson said one pollock season was wrapping up and the fish-meal plant isn’t needed in any current fishery openings. The company was optimistic the plant will be fully operational in time for another pollock season in January, he said.

Holman said he has seen two fish-meal dust explosions at Dutch Harbor plants during his 21 years with the department, but those blasts hadn’t been as costly as the one Monday.

“I don’t think it has caused as much damage as this one,” Holman said. “This was a little bit bigger.”

Hotel / Motel, Hotel / Restaurant

Las Vegas, NV – Sprinkler system halts hotel fire started by careless smoking

Careless smoking is suspected after a fire this morning at a Fremont Street hotel forced the evacuation of three floors.

Firefighters responded just before 12:50 a.m. at the Golden Nugget Hotel, 129 Fremont St., according to a Las Vegas Fire & Rescue news release. The fire was reported on the ninth floor of the Carson Tower. The building has 18 floors. Guests on the eighth, ninth, and 10th floors were evacuated.

When firefighters arrived on the ninth floor, they found moderate smoke in the hallway. When they entered the room, they found the fire had already been brought under control because of an automatic fire sprinkler in the room. No one was in the room when firefighters arrived.

Firefighters found a small portion of a mattress was smoldering. There was also damage to the head board on the bed, and the rest of the hotel room had minor smoke damage. Damage was estimated at $10,000.

Investigators said they believe the fire is smoking related. The guest was in bed sleeping when the fire sprinkler activated allowing her to leave without injury.

The hotel returned to normal services within 90 minutes.

Primary / Secondary School, School / University

Westerly, RI – Closet fire at high school extinguished with help from sprinkler system

A small fire that started in the closet of a technology room at Westerly High School Tuesday was caused by an electrical malfunction in a piece of audio-visual equipment being stored in the closet.

Westerly Fire Chief John Mackay said Wednesday that there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the fire, adding that the school’s sprinkler system worked effectively and aided firefighters in quickly containing and extinguishing the small closet fire. The fire never spread outside the closet, officials said, and no injuries were reported.

Westerly firefighters and police were dispatched to the high school just after 3:15 p.m. Tuesday with reports of a box alarm sounding. They arrived to find black smoke coming from a closet in the tech room closest to the gymnasium foyer. Mackay said the sprinkler system had already doused most of the flames by the time firefighters arrived.

Classes were back in session on Wednesday.

Hotel / Motel, Hotel / Restaurant

Wichita, KS – Cooking fire at high-rise hotel extinguished by sprinkler system

The Wichita Fire Department was busy early Tuesday evening. Fire crews were called out to a high-rise building fire at the Value Place Hotel in the 3400 hundred block of N. Great Plains, near K-96 and Oliver around 6:45 p.m.

Apartment Building, Residential, Residential High Rise

Victoria, BC, Canada – Stove fan fire in high-rise apartment building doused by sprinkler system

A small fire in an apartment building on Fisgard Street will likely have residents of least a few units looking for somewhere to stay tonight. Crews were called to the 12-story Hudson Mews building at 780 Fisgard just before 8 p.m.

People living in the 120-unit building were forced out as firefighters arrived and searched for the cause. It turned out to be a fire in a stove fan on the fifth floor of the building.

“When crews arrived on scene, they found that a suite on the fifth floor had had sprinkler activation,” said Victoria Fire Department Acting Battalion Chief Mark Robertson.

“it was caused by a small fire in a hood vent.” The fire doesn’t appear to have caused much damage but it set off sprinklers.

“The fire has been extinguished but there was quite a bit of water damage to the suites below,” said Robertson.  City of Victoria Emergemcy Social Service attended to take care of any residents that were unable to return to their suites.

The building’s management team assisted with contacting their repair contractors and organizing their residents.  Those who could return home were allowed back in about 45 minutes later.

The building opened in May 2014.