Storage / Warehouse, Warehouse San Leandro, CA – Fire at warehouse with polystyrene foam contained with help from sprinklers March 8, 2016 viking210 Firefighters contained a 1-alarm blaze to a warehouse in San Leandro Wednesday evening with the help of the building’s sprinkler system. Alameda County Fire Department crews were dispatched a commercial warehouse in the 2400 block of Polvorosa Avenue at 5:33 p.m. Blocks of polystyrene foam were burning and filling the structure with a large volume of black smoke, but a sprinkler system stopped the spread of the fire until firefighters arrived. No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Manufacturing, Paper Mill / Saw Mill Springfield, OR – Sawmill fire contained with help from sprinkler system March 7, 2016 viking210 Twenty-one firefighters responded Wednesday afternoon to a fire in the planing mill section of the Rosboro Lumber Co. mill at 2509 Main St. The fire was reported at 3:18 p.m. and declared under control by 4:30 p.m., Eugene Springfield Fire Department officials said. The planing mill section has been shut down, but the rest of the mill is operational, officials said. No employees or firefighters were reported injured. The cause of the fire, and estimated damage loss, were not immediately known. The mill’s fire sprinkler system helped control the fire, Meigs said, but firefighters had to use a thermal imaging system to spot isolated cases where the fire was spreading through the ceiling. Battalion Chief Ben Meigs said the amount of sawdust in the mill may have contributed to the spread of the fire, which “traveled up the walls, and up the ceilings.”
Residential, Townhouse / Condominium Leesburg, MD – Townhouse fire held in check by sprinkler system; No injuries March 7, 2016 viking210 A potentially devastating townhouse fire in Leesburg was held in check by automatic sprinkler system until firefighters arrived. On March 1 at 11:18 a.m., the Loudoun County Emergency Communications Center received a call for an automatic fire alarm at 19278 Harlow Square. A fire engine from Lansdowne responded. Upon arrival the firefighters met the homeowner, who let them know there was a fire in the garage. The crew requested additional resources, bringing fire and rescue units from Ashburn, Leesburg and Kincora. Firefighters located a small fire in the garage being contained by an automatic sprinkler system. Crews rapidly extinguished the remaining fire and ventilated the residence. There were no injuries to public safety personnel or civilians. The Fire Marshal’s Office conducted an investigation and determined the fire to be accidental in nature, causing $25,000 in damages. “The sprinkler activation was undoubtedly responsible for preventing the fire from spreading into the rest of the home,” said Chief Fire Marshal Linda Hale in a prepared statement. “The damages were limited to an area of the garage and the residents were not displaced because of the early warning and intervention of the fire alarm and sprinkler systems.” According to Loudoun County Fire and Rescue, home fire sprinklers can contain and may even extinguish a fire in less time than it would take the fire department to arrive on the scene. Installing both working smoke alarms and a fire sprinkler system reduces the risk of death in a home fire by 82 percent.
Hotel / Motel, Hotel / Restaurant Waldorf, MD – Overnight fire at Marriott Courtyard hotel put out by sprinkler system; No injuries March 7, 2016 viking210 A small fire caused an estimated $10,000 in damages to the interior of the Courtyard by Marriott in Waldorf around 2:03 a.m. today. The 3 story hotel is located at 3145 Crain Highway, Waldorf. A hotel employee was alerted by the fire alarm. The sprinkler system activated and extinguished the fire. The one alarm fire involved 40 firefighters from the Waldorf VFD and took approximately 5 minutes to bring under control. There were no injuries or deaths.
Primary / Secondary School, School / University Cambridge, ON, Canada – Fire at high school extinguished by sprinkler system March 7, 2016 viking210 Fire crews were called to Preston High School shortly after 1 p.m., after being notified of fire alarms going off inside the building. When they arrived, they found that the school had been evacuated. According to Cambridge Fire Department platoon Chief Brad Churchill, crews entered the building to find that its sprinkler system had extinguished the fire, but heavy smoke persisted in a corridor and stairwell at the back of the building. One staff member was taken to hospital, to be treated for symptoms of smoke inhalation. Firefighters spent much of the afternoon at the school, ventilating the building. After being allowed back in to pick up their belongings, students were sent home for the rest of the afternoon. Churchill said the evacuation went off “like clockwork” because the school regularly practiced fire drills. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Apartment Building, Residential Portland, ME – Apartment kitchen fire suppressed by sprinkler system; No injuries reported March 7, 2016 viking210 A section of Congress Street in Portland was shut down for several hours last Tuesday after a kitchen fire set off a sprinkler system in a downtown apartment building. Deputy Fire Chief John Everett said a flash fire broke out on a stove in a fourth-floor kitchen at 439 Congress St. around 2 p.m. Though the fire caused minor damage, it set off the sprinkler system in the Metropolitan Apartments. Everett said water from the fire suppression system caused damage to the kitchen and two apartments below it as well as to businesses located on the first floor. Firefighters spent more than three hours in the building vacuuming up water and covering items that were damaged by the water. Congress Street between Elm and Temple streets remained closed for more than three hours.
Apartment Building, Residential Saskatoon, SK, Canada – Sprinkler system assists firefighters in extinguishing early morning apartment fire March 6, 2016 viking210 At around 1:40 a.m. CST, the Saskatoon Fire Department responded to a call of smoke coming from an apartment complex on the 1300 block of 20th Street W. A mattress had caught fire in the building and its occupants were forced outside. Ventilation fans were put in place to clear the smoke after firefighters were able to put out the fire with the help of an existing water sprinkler head. The cause of the fire is undetermined at this point.
Residential High Rise, Townhouse / Condominium Highland Beach, FL – Fire at oceanfront high-rise condominium building controlled with help from sprinkler system March 6, 2016 viking210 Delray Beach Fire Rescue was called to an oceanfront Highland Beach high-rise condominium last Sunday afternoon when a fire started in a fourth-floor unit. No one was injured in the fire, according to Delray Beach Fire Rescue spokesman Capt. Kevin Saxton. “The fire is out, but there is significant water damage to the building because of the sprinkler activation and our suppression effort,” Saxton said. Saxton said he did not yet know what started the fire in the unit at the Wiltshire House Condominiums, 2909 South Ocean Blvd. The call alerting the fire was made at about 3:45 p.m.
Apartment Building, Residential Longmont, CO – Automatic sprinkler system douses apartment fire; No injuries March 5, 2016 viking210 1 Comment One person was displaced after a fire Sunday at a Longmont apartment complex at 630 Peck Drive, according to the Red Cross. Longmont fire went out on a report of a fire alarm around 11 a.m. and found an automatic sprinkler system had doused a fire in an apartment on the second floor, said Longmont Fire Department spokeswoman Molly Crop. She said no one was home at the time, except a dog in the bedroom that wasn’t injured, but there was significant smoke and water damage. “The sprinklers did their job,” she said. The Red Cross is providing emergency lodging for the resident.
College/University (on campus), Residence Hall/Dormitory, Residential New York, NY – Early morning residence hall fire at Columbia University contained by sprinkler system; No injuries March 5, 2016 viking210 A small fire broke out in a fifth-floor suite of Elliott Hall at 2:20 a.m. on Sunday, with water damage from the sprinkler response affecting rooms on the second through fifth floors of the building. After students were evacuated from the building following the sounding of the first alarm early Sunday morning, the Diana Center was opened for residents of Elliott Hall to wait in while the building was inspected by Public Safety, according to a resident assistant in Elliott Hall. The building was cleared for students to re-enter at around 3:30 a.m., but due to the sprinkler system’s response to the fire, the rooms immediately adjacent to the source, as well as the ones located several floors below it experienced flooding. A Barnard spokesperson confirmed that some administrative offices and hallway carpeting were affected by water damage. According to the RA, who wished to remain anonymous because RAs are prohibited by Residential Life to speak to the press, the flooding was caused by the sprinkler in the source room and not by multiple sprinklers. Residents living on the fifth floor near the room where the fire began said that aside from some smoke and ash in their rooms, they experienced no significant damage. The RA said that there was a second fire alert after the building was reopened, but that they thought that it had to do with the alert system and was not indicative of a second fire. It did, however, drive some students from the building for the night. Fifth-floor resident Maya Edwards, BC ’17, said that, although she did not leave for the night, she knew of students who left to stay with friends in other buildings. Although Barnard’s emergency alert notification system was not used for the fire, the RA said that they didn’t think that was a problem. “I feel like it was very contained so I feel like it wasn’t the same magnitude as in the 600s,” the RA said, referencing last year’s fire in 600 West 116th Street. Facilities is still working to address the problems caused by the flooding, but the building is fully operational, a Barnard spokesperson confirmed
