Category Archives: Child Care Facility

Child Care Facility, Hospital/Care Facility

Coppell, TX – (no media coverage) Single fire sprinkler extinguished fire at day care

At 8:45pm Coppell Fire Department was dispatched on an automatic fire alarm to a day care facility.  CFD units arrived approximately 4 minutes later with very light smoke inside the structure.  Crews began a search at the front door, immediately hearing the activated fire sprinkler head.  Firefighters saw remnants of a ceiling mounted exhaust fan burning.  They ‘pulled the ceiling’ exposing burned roof members and the activated automatic fire sprinkler head.  The single fire sprinkler head extinguished the fire. 

Approximately $7,000 damage (not including water restoration)

Potential loss if building did not have protection – approx. $650,000 (structure and contents, not including loss revenue)

Child Care Facility, Hospital/Care Facility

Victoria, BC, Canada – Fire sprinklers keep fire contained to kitchen at daycare center; No injuries reported

A fire that sparked in a daycare along West Saanich Road Thursday evening resulted in no injuries, but did delay traffic, according to authorities.

At approximately 4:30 p.m., the Saanich Fire Department was called to the 4300-block of West Saanich Road for reports of a structure fire.

In a tweet, the Saanich Fire Department said that the fire started in the daycare area of the building, but was limited to the kitchen section by automatic sprinklers.

Police say that traffic in the area was severely affected by the fire, especially along West Saanich Road, Royal Oak Drive, the Quadra Street off ramp onto the Patrica Bay Highway and Glanford Avenue.

Child Care Facility

Appleton, WI – Sprinkler system prevents further damage in day care stove fire

A single sprinkler head was able to extinguish fire from a stove top at an Appleton child care facility on Monday. At around 11:45 a.m., the Appleton Fire Department was sent to Appleton KinderCare on S. Oneida Street for a report of a fire in the kitchen. All staff and 65 children at the day care were able to safely evacuate the facility. When crews arrived, they had found that a sprinkler head was able to completely extinguish the fire, which had only damaged some nearby cardboard boxes. Officials say the fire started when a worker had placed empty boxes on top of the stove and a burner may have been inadvertently turned on. According to the Appleton Fire Department, this is the second incident in the past two months in which a sprinkler extinguished a fire in an Appleton building.

Child Care Facility

Lebanon, NH – Overnight fire at child care center extinguished by automatic sprinkler system

A kitchen fire that started on a stovetop at a Lebanon child care center late Wednesday night was quickly extinguished by a sprinkler system that city officials required to be installed throughout the building when it was constructed about a year and a half ago. Without sprinklers, the River Valley Club’s FitKids Childcare center likely would have suffered major damage, or been a total loss, according to Lebanon Fire Chief Chris Christopoulos. Instead, he said, the blaze only resulted in light, cosmetic damage and caused no injuries. An automatic fire alarm called firefighters to the Lafayette Street building in the Centerra office park shortly before 11 p.m. on Wednesday. By the time first responders were alerted, the fire already had been going for about a minute, Christopoulos said on Thursday. Heat from the blaze triggered sprinklers three minutes later, and firefighters arrived on-scene 12 minutes after the alarm struck, he said. “To put it to scale, a fire doubles in size every 60 to 75 seconds,” Christopoulos said in a phone interview. “So every minute that fire burns, it gets bigger.”

Rather than finding a fully engulfed building, he said, first responders instead encountered light smoke and a burned stove top extinguished by sprinklers. The building wasn’t occupied when the fire broke out. An investigation later determined that a maintenance worker had inadvertently turned the electric stove’s burners on while picking himself up from a fall, Christopoulos said. The stove then lit a camera bag left on top, he said.

The child care center was closed on Thursday, as teachers and River Valley Club employees emptied classrooms of furniture, carpets and toys. Some items were laid out in the parking lot to dry, while others were discarded due to smoke damage. “We’re obviously taking 100 percent care in how we’re handling this situation,” said River Valley Club CEO Jennifer Poljacik, who said FitKids would be open Friday.

Poljacik directed further questions to River Valley Club owner Joe Asch, who declined to comment.  Asch objected to the city’s mandate that he install sprinklers in the building after construction was first approved in July 2015. At the request of the Fire Department, the Lebanon Planning Board required that Asch install sprinklers because of the young age of children enrolled in the daycare program. Members of the Planning Board also worried about the length of time it would take for firefighters to respond to an emergency. The National Fire Protection Association recommends a four-minute response time, but Lebanon fire officials estimated it would take seven minutes to get to Lafayette Street from their downtown station.

Asch later appealed the Planning Board’s decision, arguing the sprinkler requirement was overly onerous and would cost an additional $75,000 in construction costs, but opted not to go to court when his appeal to the board failed. The overall budget for the building, designed for 188 children, was estimated at $2 million.

Each classroom in the 9,400-square-foot building would have two doors to the outside and adjacent rooms, he told the board. Asch also cited the International Building Code, which states a child care building is allowed to hold up to 100 children under the age of 2½ without requiring a sprinkler, as long as the children were on the ground floor and had doors to the outside. In a Feb. 2016 column in the Valley News, Asch said the building was designed with safety in mind and would use modern materials.

“It is almost impossible for them to catch fire,” he wrote of new buildings. “The national building codes about sprinklers reflect that.”

Ken Morley, a former Planning Board member, said he still stands by the decision to mandate sprinklers, adding they’re installed in many new, public buildings.

“Well, now, isn’t that interesting,” Morley said when informed of the fire on Thursday. “We felt at the time that because children were included and there were so many different alcoves and rooms in the structure, it would be more prudent for sprinklers to be installed.”

Christopoulos also said he’s happy to have recommended the sprinklers, adding they’ve been proven to save lives and property. If the sprinklers didn’t go off at the FitKids building, he said, a “fair portion” would have been destroyed before firefighters arrived.

“I think (the fire) certainly validated that property loss, in this instance, is economically minimal compared to what it could have been without sprinklers,” he said.

Child Care Facility, Hospital/Care Facility

Cornelius, OR – Sprinkler system extinguishes fire set by resident at youth group home

A youth group home operated by the Albertina Kerr Centers was damaged Monday evening, March 5, after a resident allegedly set a fire in his room.

The Cornelius Fire Department received the alarm at the house near the intersection of North 10th Avenue and Holladay Street at 6:01 p.m. Monday, according to spokesman Matt Johnston. He said the fire was extinguished quickly, and there were no injuries.

“The fire was actually put out by fire sprinklers,” said Johnston, adding, “It pretty much just burned a curtain. That was all that was burned. The sprinklers put it out and stopped it.”

Jeff Carr, chief executive officer of the Albertina Kerr Centers, said the sprinklers “went off very quickly” and extinguished the fire before first responders even arrived.

Albertina Kerr operates more than a dozen youth group homes and other mental health and treatment facilities across the Portland area.

Child Care Facility

Ridgefield, CT – (No Media Coverage) Fire at child daycare extinguished by sprinkler system

*** NO MEDIA COVERAGE ** A “Sprinkler Saves” blog follower has reported that an activated sprinkler system helped put out a fire at Almost Home Childcare last week in Ridgefield, Connecticut.  No injuries were reported to children or staff.  There was no media coverage of the fire, however, the Almost Home Facebook page includes additional details … https://www.facebook.com/AlmostHomecc/

 

Child Care Facility, Hospital/Care Facility

Lake Forest, IL – Sprinklers extinguish fire at daycare center before firefighters arrive; All children safely evacuated

A fire that broke out at a Lake Forest day care facility Wednesday was extinguished before fire fighters arrived.

The Lake Forest Fire Department received the alarm around 8:52 a.m. The department said all of the children at the day care had been evacuated to a nearby business. As they traveled to the scene, fire crews were told the sprinkler system had been activated and the smell of smoke was in the air.

When they arrived, firefighters found light smoke conditions in a first floor kitchenette, the department said. Sprinklers had extinguished the fire, which had been contained to a cardboard box.

Crews shut down the sprinkler and performed clean up duties, according to Battalion Chief Mike Gallo.

Child Care Facility, Other Business

Murray, UT – Early morning fire at day care facility contained by sprinkler system

It could have been a whole lot worse. That’s what Murray fire investigators are saying about an early morning blaze that burned a detached classroom area at Almost Home Playcare, a children’s daycare facility located at 140 West Winchester Street.  Deputy Chief Jon Harris told Gephardt Daily the fire started in a rubbish collection area outside a converted classroom.  He said a lawnmower was also stored there.  The flames spread quickly, scorching the exterior of the classroom before spreading into the attic.

A sprinkler system did its job, however, not only saving the interior of the classroom, but also preventing the fire from spreading to the rest of the daycare. “If those sprinklers didn’t go off and there was nobody around, this would have been a whole different story,” Deputy Chief Harris said.  Harris also credited the daycare’s alarm service for placing a call to dispatchers, letting them know that fire had broken out.  Harris said investigators had yet to determine the cause of the fire although there were no indications of foul play.