Hotel / Motel, Hotel / Restaurant Chesterfield, VA – Sprinkler limit fire spread after suspicious explosion at hotel June 26, 2015 viking210 Investigators are trying to figure out what caused an explosion at a Chesterfield hotel early Tuesday morning. The call came in around 4:30 a.m. for a fire alarm at the InTown Suites in the 11500-block of Green Spring Road, between Koger Center Blvd and Robious Road. Chesterfield County Fire and EMS tell us they found signs of an explosion, and some residents report the building shook. Most people were asleep when it happened, but not Brendon Chandler. “Just a big explosion and then the window just ended up in the parking lot,” remembers Chandler. He was smoking a cigarette when all of a sudden in the room above his, “The window just shot right out!” And, that’s when guests say chaos erupted. “I just heard the fire alarm go off and I heard a whole bunch of people running outside. The next thing you know, I’m waking up and just everybody’s going outside,” says resident David Rivenbark. Chesterfield Fire says the explosion happened in a room on the third floor. The blown-out window and melted plastic from the fire was evident from the outside. That fire activated the room’s sprinkler system. Some second floor rooms sustained water damage from those sprinklers. A Hazmat team was brought in and tests found no hazardous materials in the room, but investigators are calling the situation “suspicious” and say the room’s occupant was no where to be found. One guest told NBC12, she heard footsteps before the fire alarm went off. “[Someone was] hightailing it down the hall. We’re right in front of the elevator near the stairwell, and I heard the stairwell door fly open and hit the wall,” she says. Now police want to talk to that person. No one was injured by the explosion, but two hotel guests were later taken to the hospital for unrelated injuries. Police and the Fire Marshal’s Office continue to investigate.
Hotel / Motel, Hotel / Restaurant Guelph, ON, Canada – Fire at Staybridge Suites hotel suppressed by sprinkler system June 15, 2015 viking210 Guelph firefighters say well trained staff and working sprinklers saved a fire from getting out of control in a Guelph hotel room. Officials say the fire was sparked by materials left near a hot plate at the Staybridge Suites off Highway Six. A father was staying in the first floor room with his children. They returned to the room on Saturday to find it full of smoke. “The sprinkler system actually did what it was supposed to. It was fully functioning and it actually saved that room and probably saved a huge part of that building as a result of that,” said Tony Sabatini, chief fire prevention officer with the city of Guelph. Part of the hotel needed to be evacuated. Damage is estimated at around $35,000.
Hotel / Motel, Hotel / Restaurant Madison, WI – Fire in hotel storage closet extinguished with help from sprinkler system May 20, 2015 viking210 The Edgewater hotel was evacuated Monday night due to a fire discovered in a small storage closet. Nobody was injured in the fire. A sprinkler put out most of the fire in the closet, with the fire totally put out by firefighters. The fire call came in to the Madison Fire Department at about 8:15 p.m. Firefighters responded within minutes to the hotel at 666 Wisconsin Ave. “Alarms were sounding and people evacuated the building,” the fire department reported. A bag of rags had been smoldering in the closet, with some cardboard boxes above the bag catching fire. Staff said the bag contained kitchen rags and should not have been in the closet. “Security video showed an employee placing the bag in the room,” the report said. The investigation continues. No damage estimate was given.
Hotel / Motel, Hotel / Restaurant Reno, NV – Sprinkler system activates to help contain hotel fire May 6, 2015 viking210 An investigation is underway into a fire Tuesday night in the Ponderosa Hotel in Reno’s Midtown district. Crews responded around 8 p.m. after a fire was reported in one of rooms at the Ponderosa on South Virginia Street. (The fire sprinkler system activated and helped contain the fire to one room.) About 20 people had to be evacuated but the fire was contained to just the one room. Firefighters say they got a quick jump on the fire and were able to keep the damage to a minimum. “We were able to evacuate the people out of the floor the fire was on,” Battalion Chief Tim O’Brien said. “We were able to quickly shut down the sprinkler system once the fire was out and prevent any further water damage to the structure,” he said. The residents who had to be evacuated later were allowed to return to their rooms. As of late Tuesday, the fire’s cause had not been determined. No one was hurt.
Hotel / Motel, Hotel / Restaurant Napa, CA – Sprinkler puts out fire in hotel caused by unattended candle May 4, 2015 viking210 A lit candle on Friday morning ignited a hand towel in a guest room at the River Terrace Inn on Soscol Avenue, according to the Napa Fire Department. The hotel was evacuated. There were no reported injuries. Firefighters, who responded to the fire at 11:17 a.m., found an operating fire sprinkler-head in the bathroom of an occupied room on the third floor, said Fire Marshal Darren Drake. The sprinkler put out the fire, he said. One room was damaged, and 74 out of 105 rooms were rented when the fire broke Friday morning, Drake said.
Hotel / Motel, Hotel / Restaurant Suffolk, VA – Overnight fire at Hilton Garden Inn extinguished by sprinkler system May 3, 2015 viking210 Officials had to evacuate the Hilton Garden Inn on Harbour View Boulevard after a fire broke out at the hotel overnight. Suffolk Fire & Rescue and Suffolk Police responded to the hotel in the 5900 block of Harbour View Boulevard, shortly after 2 a.m. Friday. When firefighters arrived, the building had already been evacuated and the sprinkler system had extinguished the flames. Officials say the fire started in the kitchen and the guest lobby was filled with smoke. However, there was no structural damage. There were no injuries and all guests on the first floor were relocated.
Hotel / Motel, Hotel / Restaurant Cartersville, GA – Sprinkler system suppresses possible meth lab fire at hotel May 1, 2015 viking210 An explosion that left a bathroom door lying in the middle of a hotel room had markers of a methamphetamine lab, according to a drug official. Emergency officials responded about 8 p.m. to Cartersville North Inns & Suites, 11 Kent Drive in Cartersville, after reports of an explosion blew the door off and activated the sprinkler system. “We responded to a possible meth lab explosion. It has some signatures of a meth lab explosion, but I won’t know until we get a search warrant to be able to get into the room and isolate that,” Bartow-Cartersville Drug Task Force Commander Capt. Mark Mayton said, declining to detail the signatures present at the scene. Bartow County Fire Department Capt. Mike Kimbrel said crews responded to the third floor room to find no fire but other indicators of what may have occurred. “There was no fire. We suspect the sprinkler system suppressed it … worked like it was supposed to,” he said. “… There was an odor they encountered. Everything we were doing was just precautionary, making sure no one was contaminated, everybody was accounted for. “We’ve been told it was an explosion. … I don’t know that somebody didn’t just kick the door in. According to my crews, the door was off the hinges. I was just up there and there was a door laying in the floor of the bedroom.” Authorities conducted a partial evacuation and hotel employees on scene Wednesday night were shifting guests to other floors as necessary. “We have secured the immediate area to make sure there was no contamination to other guests that were in the building. We’ve evacuated the entire floor that this happened on,” Mayton said. The occupants of the room were not at the scene and, as of press time, were not in custody. Mayton declined to comment on their identity. While waiting for a search warrant for the room, Mayton said the investigation would determine whether the room’s occupants were indeed manufacturing meth. “It’s going to depend on what we find in there. The air is going to have to be sampled. We have to use air monitoring equipment just to make sure there’s no explosive levels of gases in there,” he said. No injuries were reported, although authorities were in contact with area hospitals for possible patients with chemical burns.
Hotel / Motel, Hotel / Restaurant Fort Myers, FL – Storage room fire at Crestwood Suites hotel contained by sprinkler system April 23, 2015 viking210 A small fire in a storage room at the Crestwood Suites hotel forced dozens of people to evacuate overnight. That’s located off U.S. 41 just north of Gladiolous Drive. The South Trail Fire Department tells WINK News the fire happened a little after 1 a.m. Wednesday. The sprinkler system activated and helped contain the fire to the storage room. The damage displaced about 80 people staying at the hotel, but within a few hours the hotel management found other rooms or new places for those people to stay. The fire department went through the hotel to evaluate the damage and how many rooms were usable. A clean up crew remained on scene hours later trying to dry everything out. Fire officials will investigate the cause. No one was injured.
Hotel / Motel, Hotel / Restaurant Belden, CA – Sprinklers help keep fire from spreading at guest lodge April 21, 2015 viking210 A fire of unknown origin burned a cabin and mobile home adjacent to Belden Town’s guest lodge Sunday, April 19, crackling to life in the wee hours of the morning. Quincy Fire Chief Robbie Cassou said a sprinkler system helped to keep the fire contained. He said the owner was also spraying water on the building when fire crews arrived. Apartments connected to the main lodge also suffered damage. According to resort manager Richard Folen, guests were evacuated as soon as the fire was discovered. Folen said there were three rooms with guests in them. He said there were also guests in cabins on the far side of the lodge from the fire, but they were allowed to stay in their rooms. The fire affected Cabin 8 and the west side of the lodge. It included the master suite, which owner Ivan Coffman calls home. Firefighters from communities all over the county responded to the fire along with the U.S. Forest Service and a Cal Fire crew from Butte County.
Hotel / Motel, Hotel / Restaurant Hays, KS – Laundry fire at Holiday Inn Express extinguished by sprinkler system April 20, 2015 viking210 At 10:04 p.m. Saturday, the Hays Fire Department, assisted by the Hays Police Department, was dispatched to an automatic fire alarm at the Holiday Inn Express, 4650 Roth. First arriving police officers reported there was a fire in the building and that occupants were evacuating. At the same time, Holiday Inn Express staff called 911 to report a fire in the laundry room. At that time, additional fire crews and Ellis County EMS were alerted to respond. Police officers immediately began assisting with the evacuation of the building. Ellis County EMS assisted one guest with limited mobility in evacuating the hotel. There were no injuries as a result of the fire. Firefighters advanced one attack hose line to the laundry room and found the fire had been extinguished by two automatic fire sprinklers. After confirming that the fire was extinguished, firefighters worked to clear the smoke and shut down the fire sprinkler system. The laundry room suffered fire, smoke and water damage. The lobby area and portions of the first floor of the building suffered water and smoke damage. The most probable cause of the fire was the spontaneous combustion of laundry inside a clothes dryer. Five fire trucks and 18 firefighters responded. The last fire crew left the scene at 12:31 a.m. Sunday.
