Officials say the multiunit apartment’s fifth floor sprinkler system contained the fire before crews arrived at the scene, located at 1630 Main Street.
Crews said the fire was contained to one apartment and they made sure the fire was promptly extinguished.
The fire displaced two families who were given temporary shelter by a CT Transit bus. The American Red Cross is working to assist the displaced families.
Officials say no one was injured and the incident is under investigation.
The battery caught fire while charging in a unit in an apartment building on Minna near Sixth Street around 3:15 p.m., according to the fire department.
A fire sprinkler slowed the progress of the fire and firefighters rescued two dogs from the unit.
No injuries were reported, according to the fire department.
The fire started in an electrical outlet when a resident was not home. Thanks to the sprinkler system, the damage was limited to some scorched drywall, a burned dresser and water damage. There were no injuries.
“It’s a textbook example of why sprinkler systems are important,” said Dalton Fire Marshal Donnie Blankenship. He’s using the incident as a reminder of the importance of making sure sprinkler systems are in good working order. “Those are concrete floors (in the apartment) but if I’m not mistaken there’s a lot of heavy timber in there … they may have put concrete over the timber … but you had the potential of another Thread Mill-style fire with that building. Other than some water damage to some apartments below it, there was minimal damage.”
“There was a dog and two cats in the apartment,” Blankenship added. “And all those survived.”
Blankenship is in charge of the Dalton Fire Department’s Prevention Division. The firefighters in that division are tasked with inspecting the fire prevention systems in new buildings and making sure they are up to code as well as inspecting the fire safety systems in existing businesses and apartment buildings on an annual basis.
“We go out to these buildings and make sure they’re maintained annually and that way, when (a fire) does happen, the sprinklers and alarms work properly,” Blankenship said. “We don’t see many (systems) that are totally inoperable, but we see the majority of them have some type of issue that we usually address with (the owners) to get them to fix it.”
The fire department also receives reports from sprinkler and fire alarm contractors who do any work in the city, and the department reviews those reports to make sure the systems are working properly. If any deficiencies are noted, the department contacts the companies to make sure they’re fixed.
Blankenship said if any building managers or property owners are concerned about the condition of their sprinkler systems or other fire safety equipment, they can contact the Dalton Fire Department to request an evaluation.
“We’ll come out and inspect it, and their sprinkler contractors usually are set up to come out at a certain time, usually once a year, to inspect them, too,” Blankenship said.
Austin Police Department (APD) personnel were on scene for a check welfare call at the residence and directed fire crews to the scene. The fire had been brought under control by the building’s fire sprinkler system. Crews finished extinguishing the flames and reset the sprinkler system before the scene was turned over to AFD Investigations.
Fire investigators processed the scene and spoke with Steve Manor, the apartment’s resident, who had been detained by APD. Mr. Manor confessed to intentionally starting the fire to elicit a response from APD or AFD. The physical evidence at the scene validated Manor’s admission.
Steve Manor was transported to the Travis County Jail. He has been charged with arson, a state jail felony. His bond has been set at $15,000.
The damaged to the residence and contents are estimated to be approximately $12,000.
Bangor firefighters responded to reports of smoke and water coming from an apartment on the fourth floor of 35 Main St. at 2:25 p.m. on Monday, said Assistant Fire Chief Chandler Corriveau.
First responders discovered a fire in an apartment building on the fourth floor that was contained on the stove, but had spread to the nearby kitchen cabinets, Corriveau said. The sprinkler system activated and extinguished the fire before firefighters arrived.
The tenant who lives in the apartment where the fire began was not home at the time of the fire, Corriveau said. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
The sprinklers caused damage in 11 of the 13 apartments in the building, all of which are occupied, and the commercial space on the first floor, which holds the Salty Brick Market, Corriveau said. None of the tenants were staying in the building Monday night.
“The sprinkler system did exactly what it was supposed to do – it put the fire out,” Corriveau said. “If the sprinkler system hadn’t put the fire out, we would have used way more water trying to extinguish an apartment fire that had grown larger in size than just being on the stovetop.”
Firefighters tried to salvage and protect merchandise in the Salty Brick Market and protect it from water that was pouring down from the floors above, Corriveau said, but some items in the store were certainly damaged.
The American Red Cross was assisting the building residents and the building owner also enlisted a company to clean up the water on Monday, Corriveau said.
Firefighters closed a portion of Main Street from where the road intersects with Broad and Middle and Water streets from roughly 2:30 to 3:40 p.m. on Monday to address the fire and water damage.
Shortly after midnight, the LTFPD was called to the scene in the 1300 block of Mews Lane where crews found a fire had broken out on the balcony of a second-floor apartment unit.
According to the fire district, the building’s sprinkler system was triggered by the smoke and kept the fire from spreading, allowing crews to quickly extinguish it.
The building’s exterior reportedly suffered some damage, and the interior of the impacted unit also sustained minor damage.
Although the occupants were home at the time of the fire, no injuries were reported.
Lockport Fire Investigators still are investigating the specific cause of the fire, but, according to the initial report, the cause “appears to be accidental.”
According to Chesterfield Fire and EMS, they received a call at 7:54 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 17 about a fire at an apartment building in the 300 block of Karl Linn Drive.
The first units were on scene within five minutes. It was determined that a stove top fire happened within a single apartment on the first floor, and the fire did not spread outside the apartment.
The fire was extinguished by an automatic sprinkler and there were no reported injuries. The person who lived in the apartment has been displaced.
All others in the building that were evacuated temporarily will be able to stay in the apartments unaffected.
This is the second stove fire that has happened at this apartment building within the past two months, the other happening back in September.
The city of North Liberty says firefighters responded to the fire at 1010 Rachel Street just before 4:30 a.m. Monday. Police who arrived on the scene first warned smoke was coming from the second floor of the building and a sprinkler system was working.
Firefighters broke their way in to find smoke in the living room, but the fire mostly out from the sprinklers.
Crews found two children in a bedroom and a dog inside the apartment and got them out.
There’s no word on the extent of injuries for those taken to the hospital.
Investigators are trying to determine how it started, and how much damage the fire caused.
The North Liberty Police Department, Coralville Fire Department, Johnson County Ambulance Service and Johnson County Emergency Communications Center all helped on the call.
This is the second fire of the day successfully controlled by sprinklers in the area. The Harford Co., MD Fire & EMS X account stated, “Fire sprinklers knocked down the fire,” emphasizing their importance in preventing damage and saving lives.
Details about the damage or injuries from the fire haven’t been released, but volunteer firefighters responded quickly, and the situation was under control. As more information becomes available, fire officials may share more about the cause of the fire and how well the response worked.
A fire just before 4 p.m. on Halloween left two apartments in Urbana uninhabitable.
The Urbana Fire Department responded to a fire alarm at an apartment complex on Lincoln Avenue at 3:55 p.m. on Oct. 31. Initially, three engines, one ladder and one command officer were dispatched.
When the crews arrived, there was no sign of fire coming from the building, but after investigating, crews found water coming from an apartment.
The crews forced the apartment door open and found it was full of smoke. While the fire did damage the stove, microwave and cabinets, it was kept from spreading throughout the unit by the sprinkler system.
More firefighters were dispatched to the scene and crews were able to extinguish the fire within 10 minutes. The apartment residents were not home at the time of the fire, and no injuries were reported from responding crews or other residents living in the apartment complex.
The residents living in the apartment that experienced the fire, and the apartment directly below were told that their residences were not inhabitable at this time.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation and damage estimates have not been determined at this time.
