Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of a small fire that broke out at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center last Wednesday night. The fire broke out around 8:30 p.m. in a workroom inside the main museum building. Pat Ammons, media and public relations manager for the center, said that the building’s sprinkler system got a jump start on extinguishing the blaze and that Huntsville firefighters finished the job within minutes of the alarm.
“Everybody was just so responsive,” Ammons said. Fire damage is seen inside a workroom at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, where a small blaze ignited Wednesday night. No one was injured in the fire, and the cause is still under investigation. (Contributed by U.S. Space & Rocket Center)
Though smoke filled the building and there was some electrical damage, which knocked out the center’s phone lines through the day Thursday, the damage was minimal, Ammons said.
There were people inside the building at the time of the fire, including a group of about three dozen Space Camp trainees, but no one was near the area of the fire. The Space & Rocket Center was also hosting Wing Ding 37, an annual gathering of Gold Wing owners, but Wednesday night’s reception was being held in the Davidson Center for Space Exploration.
The center opened as usual at 9 a.m. Thursday morning
A nurse suffered smoke inhalation during a medical office fire Saturday afternoon at the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center, according to a release from the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office. Rutherford County Emergency Medical Services paramedics took the nurse to St. Thomas Rutherford Hospital for treatment, the release stated.
Sprinklers quickly extinguished the fire confined to the medical director’s office, but smoke filled the first floor of the medical wing and administrative offices, according to the release. Water from the sprinkler flooded the medical hallway, dispatch and the administrative hallways.
Deputies used fire extinguishers to put out hot spots, official said. Murfreesboro Fire and Rescue firefighters estimated 35 gallons of water per minute dropped from the sprinklers, Sheriff Robert Arnold said in the release. Deputies, the sheriff and inmates mopped water from the hallways.
The Murfreesboro Fire & Rescue Department and Rutherford County Fire Rescue responded to clear the area of smoke that filled the hallways, officials said. The water and smoke damage did not spread to the inmate housing areas.
Arnold asked Murfreesboro Fire & Rescue to investigate the cause of the fire with help from sheriff’s arson investigator Detective Randy Groce. “It’s unfortunate this incident happened,” Arnold said in the release. “Thank God, no one was seriously hurt.”
Arnold thanked Murfreesboro Fire & Rescue, Rutherford Fire Rescue, Sheriff’s Office employees and inmates for their quick response.
A Muskegon Police Department cruiser was destroyed in a fire inside the city’s Department of Public Works garage Wednesday afternoon, March 25. An automatic sprinkler system quickly suppressed the fire, stopping it from spreading and preventing major damage to the building and other vehicles. Muskegon Fire Department firefighters, arriving on the scene, finished the job of extinguishing the blaze.
No one was hurt because no one was in the building at the time – employees were in a staff meeting off site, according to Muskegon Fire Marshal Major Metcalf. The fire was reported shortly after 1 p.m. Fire and police officials late Wednesday were still investigating, but the cause may have been electrical problems with the cruiser that burned, Metcalf said. The car was at the DPW building for maintenance, and mechanics told fire investigators that one reported problem was with the electrical system, Metcalf said.
Besides the ruined cruiser, there was minor smoke and water damage inside the building and smoke stains on the outside of other vehicles, including two police cruisers and a fire engine, Metcalf said. “We didn’t find any major damage to any work areas,” he said.
“The one thing I was impressed with, the sprinkler system in the DPW was operational, in service, and it did prevent the fire from growing out of control,” the fire marshal said. “I was very pleased about that. Our firefighters arrived on the scene and fully extinguished it.”
Reporting on lives and property saved by fire sprinklers
