Office Building, Other Business Knoxville, TN – Fire in downtown office building held at bay by sprinkler system November 14, 2017 viking210 1 Comment A downtown Knoxville building caught fire Tuesday morning off Market Street.Fire crews said people reported smoke coming from the building at 713 Market Street around 6:30 a.m. The building houses a few law offices and no one was inside the building at the time of the fire. According to the Knoxville Fire Department, first responders found the fire in a second story wall. The fire was quickly put out and crews are unsure how it started as of right now. Firefighters said the sprinkler system held the fire at bay until they could arrive. The building suffered significant water damage.
Office Building, Other Business Tucson, AZ – Sprinkler system credited with minimizing damage at downtown office building September 18, 2017 viking210 Firefighters arrived just in time to see the sprinklers activate over flames in the administrative office of Visit Tucson. The fire alarm at 100 South Church Ave in downtown Tucson triggered a call to 911 at 6:38 p.m., according to a release from Tucson Fire Department. It stated firefighters arrived on scene two minutes later and had the situation under control 12 minutes after that. They didn’t find anyone inside the building, but determined the fire started around some construction equipment. The cause of it all is still under investigation, according to the department’s release. The department credits a working fire alarm and sprinkler system with saving property and lives from the flames.
Office Building, Other Business Reston, VA – Cubicle fire in 11th floor office contained by sprinkler system; No injuries reported September 1, 2017 viking210 Firefighters were dispatched for a fire alarm in a high rise building in the 12000 block of Sunset Hills Road in Reston on Sunday, Aug. 20, at approximately 7:51 a.m., according to the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department. The building was occupied by approximately 20 employees at the time of the fire. All occupants safely evacuated the building, according to the department. No smoke or fire was evident from the outside of the 12-story, commercial high rise building. Crews proceeded to the eleventh floor where they discovered a significant amount of smoke, according to the department. Firefighters quickly discovered the fire, which was mostly extinguished by one fire sprinkler. The remaining fire was quickly extinguished and contained to the eleventh floor, according to the department. Investigators determined that the fire was accidental in nature and started on the eleventh floor at a set of four clustered cubicle workspaces. The cause of the fire was electrical in nature, involving a junction box that routed power to the four workstations. The nature of the failure is not known at this time, according to the department. There were no injuries reported, but damages as a result of the fire are estimated to be approximately $40,000, according to the department.
Office Building, Other Business Reston, VA – Fire on 11th floor of commercial office building contained by sprinkler system August 23, 2017 viking210 A two-alarm fire Sunday morning on the 11th floor of a building in the 12000 block of Sunset Hills Road has been contained, officials say. The fire started in a cubicle, Deputy Chief Dan Shaw said. “Upon arrival, [firefighters] found a working fire on the 11th floor,” he said. “The fire was being contained by a sprinkler system that had successfully activated.” Units from Fairfax County Fire and Rescue stations 4 and 36 responded. The second alarm was sounded for resources, Shaw said. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. We will provide more information when it becomes available.
Office Building, Other Business Quincy, MA – Fire on top floor of office building held in check by sprinkler system April 27, 2017 viking210 A blaze on the top floor of a Quincy office building kept firefighters busy early Wednesday morning. Firefighters responded to 300 Crown Colony Drive shortly before 1 a.m. to investigate a fire alarm in the building. When they arrived, they discovered that the sprinkler system was going off on the fifth floor, Quincy Fire Deputy Chief Ed Fenby said. Additional manpower and engines were called to the building. When they went up to investigate, dense black smoke was filling the suite belonging to MCMC LLC, a health insurance company. They forced their way into the locked office and found a power strip, computer and printer that were on fire, Fenby said. “The sprinkler kept it in check and they put out the rest of it and checked to make sure it didn’t get into the walls,” Fenby said. No one was believed to be in the building at the time of the fire and it is not considered suspicious. Because the windows of the building do not open, the fire department had to smash one of them in order to help ventilate the unit.
Office Building, Retail Las Vegas, NV – Restroom fire at mixed-use retail and office center extinguished by sprinkler system January 12, 2017 viking210 An automatic fire sprinkler put out a small fire in a restroom this afternoon at Tivoli Village, according to a Las Vegas Fire & Rescue news release. Firefighters were called to the complex at 302 S. Rampart Boulevard near Alta Drive just before 5:15 p.m. When they arrived, smoke was coming out an outside restroom. Firefighters found where the fire occurred and confirmed it was already extinguished by the fire sprinkler. Firefighters assisted with shutting the water off and cleaning up the area. The only item that burned was the motorized paper towel dispenser. Damage was estimated at $250. The restroom is outside near an outside playground area. The incident remains under investigation by Las Vegas Arson Investigators. There were no reported injuries during the incident.
Office Building, Other Business Norfolk, VA – Fire at downtown high rise office building doused by sprinkler system January 2, 2017 viking210 A floor buffer caused a cleaning solvent to catch fire Wednesday in the Wells Fargo Center in downtown Norfolk. Crews were called to the building, located at E. Charlotte Street and Monticello Avenue, for a fire alarm at 7:14 p.m. The call was later upgraded to a fire. Fire officials say the fire was sparked as crews cleaned the building, when a buffer ignited a cleaning solvent. That activated the building’s sprinkler system. By the time firefighters got to the scene, there was no active fire. The sprinkler system caused some water to collect in the building’s basement and in the elevator shaft. Cleanup efforts are now underway. The operator of the floor buffer was taken to a local hospital with some burns to his hands. He’s expected to be OK.
Office Building, Other Business North Charleston, SC – Overnight fire at office park held in check by sprinkler system November 24, 2016 viking210 Emergency crews have extinguished a fire at a business in Park Circle Tuesday night. Crews with the North Charleston Fire Department responded to the fire at the ALSCO building on 4921 Chateau Ave. NCFD officials reported at 10:47 p.m. that the fire was under control. Authorities said the fire was kept in check by the sprinkler system until crews made entry to extinguish the fire fully. There were no reported injuries. Residents in the area reported multiple fire trucks responding to the incident. A motorist said authorities had shut down a portion of the road as crews worked the fire.
Office Building, Other Business Madison, WI – Sprinkler system extinguishes intentionally-set fire at office building October 11, 2016 viking210 Madison police and firefighters had to deal with a bizarre incident Friday night in an office building along the Beltline, where a man allegedly set fire and vandalized a suite of offices before crawling out, soaking wet, to waiting police. Dustin Palmer, 30, was taken into custody on five counts of criminal damage to property and disorderly conduct, and could face an arson charge, Madison police said. The incident started at about 8 p.m. Friday at the office building at 2601 W. Beltline, the building on the corner of Todd Drive and the Beltline. According to police: Palmer’s intention was to vandalize, not to steal, police said. “Damage was reported on several floors of the high-rise building,” said police spokesman Joel DeSpain. “Glass was broken, items were pulled off of walls and smeared blood was found in different locations.” Before Palmer allegedly set a fire in an office suite on the fifth floor, he went into the restaurant, scared staff and helped himself to a fountain drink. The fire brought firefighters to the scene, called by police as they searched for the suspect. “The crew from Ladder 6 saw dense smoke in the fifth-floor room and found that a small fire had been extinguished by the automatic fire sprinkler system,” said Joel Kneifel of the MFD. Firefighters evacuated the building and searched the part of the building near the fire to make sure nobody was hurt or trapped. When police officers entered the damaged fifth-floor offices, Palmer was ordered to come out. “He crawled to them alternating between yelling nonsensical things and coughing,” DeSpain said. “Officers pulled him to safety and took him down several flights of stairs as the MFD mopped up the scene.”
Office Building, Other Business Boston, MA – Sprinkler system activates in spontaneous combustion fire at downtown office building September 25, 2016 viking210 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.
