Category Archives: Other / Not Specified

Other / Not Specified

Falmouth, MA – Fire at marine laboratory held in check by automatic sprinkler system

Falmouth Fire/Rescue reports that at approximately 9 AM Thursday morning, they responded to the Marine Resource Center, part of Marine Biological Laboratories at 125 Water Street in Woods Hole. Shortly after arrival, Engine 20 reported smoke showing from the rear of the building. A full first alarm was dispatched, bringing Engine 25 and Ladder 26 to the scene. Crews connected to the sprinkler system and advanced an attack line that they then connected to the standpipe in the stairwell. The crew made entrance to the second floor hallway and found a heavy smoke condition with a fire in a lab that was being held in check by the sprinkler system. The crew fully extinguished the fire and began ventilating the building. Firefighters remained on scene for about 90 minutes. There were no injuries, and the fire is believed to be accidental. Mutual aid from Joint Base Cape Cod and Mashpee Fire covered the Falmouth stations during the incident.

Other / Not Specified, Other Business

Santa Clara, CA – Fire at trade show exhibit hall contained by sprinkler system; No injuries

A fire yesterday at the Flash Memory Summit in Santa Clara, Calif., has forced the closure of the show floor. The fire started about Tuesday morning in the Santa Clara convention center.

An overhead sprinkler contained the blaze.

According to a worker for the show floor infrastructure provider, the sprinkler ran for about an hour before workers discovered the mishap. The booth underneath the blaze was heavily damaged, and there was water damage to some of the surrounding booths.

No one was injured.

According to the worker, the cause of the fire was an overloaded power strip that booth workers left under a pile of paper brochures. The exhibits were scheduled to open at 4pm on Aug. 9 but remained closed. They are now scheduled to open at noon on Aug. 10.

Other / Not Specified, Other Business

Sparks, NV – Sprinkler system puts out fire in HAZMAT situation; No injuries reported

The Sparks Fire Department was dispatched to an activated fire alarm at 230 Coney Island Dr. just before 6 a.m. on Monday.

When authorities arrived on scene, they found water flowing out from under a roll-up door. 

Upon investigation, fire crews observed a light haze in the building caused by a small fire near a Potassium Hydroxide drum. The fire was put out by the building sprinkler system.

Crews decided to back out and call for the Regional Hazardous Material Team.

Regional Hazardous Material Team members from the Reno and Sparks fire departments both responded to the scene.

Crews started the evacuation process of all businesses located nearby and secured the scene for one block to the east and west of Coney Island Dr.

A HAZMAT team remains on scene accessing the incident.

A fire investigator is also on scene, but cannot make access to assess the cause yet.

Coney Island Dr. has reopened.

Other / Not Specified, Other Business

Basalt, CO – Sprinkler system douses dumpster fire at mixed-use building

A built-in fire sprinkler system performed exactly as designed Tuesday evening in a mixed residential-commercial building at Willits Town Center, Basalt Deputy Fire Chief Pete Bradshaw said.

A fire ignited shortly after 6 p.m. in an isolated room with a trash dumpster and compactor. Black smoke was billowing out when firefighters arrived, but the sprinkler system was activated before they swung into action. The smoke turned white and water flowed from the room.

“The sprinkler pretty much did its job perfectly,” Bradshaw said.The room is built so that it would take about two hours before the fire could burn through the sheetrock and spread, Bradshaw said.

The residents and customers of the restaurants and shops in the Triangle Park Lofts building had to evacuate for nearly 30 minutes as fire alarms rang out. The building is home to popular restaurants such as Smoke and El Korita.

Bradshaw said 17 firefighters responded, including 12 volunteers, with one engine and one ladder truck.

Fire officers didn’t poke around the garbage to determine the cause. It wouldn’t have been easy to determine since the fire burned for a short time and the pile was thoroughly doused, Bradshaw said.

“It’s the second time we had a fire in that dumpster,” he said, recalling that the first incident was a couple of years ago.

Other / Not Specified, Other Business

Ventura, CA – Sprinkler system holds flames in check after vehicle crashes into building and starts fire

Rescuers responded to a building that caught fire in Ventura early Friday after a vehicle crashed into it.

Firefighters received a report at 1:11 a.m. that a truck had slammed into and gone inside a two-story building in the 5700 block of Moon Drive, just north of Highway 101 and about a block west of South Victoria Avenue. The vehicle and the building both apparently caught fire.

Crews at the scene discovered one victim and requested an ambulance.

One man was taken to a local trauma center at 1:35 a.m. for injuries, just as the vehicle fire was reported knocked down. The structure fire was being held in check by a sprinkler system, firefighters said.

Officials said the fire was controlled within 23 minutes of firefighters arrival and put out an hour later.

Two other victims apparently left the scene, authorities reported to dispatchers.

In addition to Ventura City Fire, firefighters from Ventura County, Oxnard and Santa Paula fire departments as well as Ventura police also responded.

Other / Not Specified, Other Business

Huntington, WV – Arena fire controlled with help from sprinkler system; No injuries and no events canceled

Firefighters responded to a fire Friday morning at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena in Huntington. Crews were able to quickly put out the fire, which started in an administrative office. The sprinkler system helped in the fire.  About 15 to 20 employees were in the building at the time.  No one was reported hurt in the incident.  Events at the arena will continue as normal.

Other / Not Specified, Other Business

Armstrong, BC, Canada – Sprinkler system douses fire; Assist firefighters in controlling fire in commercial building

There was very little sleep for Armstrong-Spallumcheen firefighters. The volunteer firefighters were first called to a blaze in downtown Armstrong Wednesday night and then to a fire at a Spallumcheen farm early Thursday morning.  “Our crew did a terrific job,” said Ian Cummings, fire chief.  The first call came in at 10:21 p.m. Wednesday at the Rose Valley Square on Pleasant Valley Road in Armstrong.  “The sprinkler was activated and there was smoke in the building,” said Cummings.   It’s believed spontaneous combustion caught some oily rags on fire, but the sprinkler was able to douse the flames.

Other / Not Specified, Other Business

Park Ridge, IL – Fire in trash chute at parking garage extinguished by sprinkler system

(No Media Coverage – Fire Department Reported) On February 12, 2017 at 5:09 p.m. the Park Ridge Fire Department was dispatched to 50 N. Northwest Highway for an activated fire alarm. Crews arrived on the scene within four (4) minutes and determined there was a possible fire in the trash room located in the parking garage.  Upon entering the trash room, there was water flowing from 4 sprinkler heads inside the trash chute.  These heads activated due to a fire of undetermined cause in the dumpster itself.  The fire was extinguished by the sprinkler system saving what could have been a large fire loss.  Crews checked for fire extension and damage.  There was minimal damage to the building from water and smoke.  No injuries were reported and all building fire protection systems were placed back in service that night.

Other / Not Specified, Other Business

Spokane, WA – Security video shows sprinkler system tackling fire at commercial building

A video captures the start of a commercial fire at downtown Spokane business and highlights the importance of having a working sprinkler system. 

It is fortunate that a security camera was positioned in such a way to capture the entire life cycle of this fire. It does not happen very often that fire departments get video that shows how a fire might start, how it progresses, and how it can be controlled in a true, unsupervised everyday environment.

“This video shows how something that starts out small can quickly escalate without the proper fire suppression systems in place,” says City of Spokane Fire Marshal Michael Miller. “If not for the working sprinkler, this fire could have been much worse. This is another example of why we stress the importance of installing and properly maintaining automatic fire suppression and detection systems.”

The video captures a fire that started on January 28, 2016 in the Symons Building (15 S. Howard St.), a four story commercial building. The first indication of a problem can be seen when there is a brief flicker from a light fixture that is located in a main floor storage room. Hot material begins to drip from the fixture to the floor level where it ignited some plastic and consequently moved into the adjacent wood wall. The sprinkler head activated and helped confine the fire to a small area. Fire crews also credit the business for having a clean and orderly storeroom which helped in not providing a lot of fuel to the fire in its earliest stage. Firefighters were able to extinguish the fire within 20 minutes. No injuries were reported. 

Other / Not Specified, Other Business

Racine, WI – Sprinkler system extinguishes fire in commercial building; no injuries reported

About $3,000 damage resulted from a fire Tuesday morning at a commercial building in the Uptown area.

The fire, which was reported at about 9:15 a.m., originated on the second floor of the building at 1232 Washington Ave. on pallets holding folded cardboard, Racine Fire Department Lt. Mike Moss said.

A sprinkler system put out the fire, which produced a lot of smoke because of plastics and other materials involved, Moss said.

The building is used for storage by HFI Fluid Power Products, 1210 Washington Ave., Moss said.

The area was not occupied at the time of the fire and nearby workers were able to exit unharmed. No injuries were reported.