Category Archives: Apartment Building

Apartment Building, Residential

Battle Ground, WA – Sprinkler system suppresses apartment fire; No injuries and damage minimized

A fire sprinkler successfully suppressed an apartment fire Tuesday afternoon in Battle Ground, minimizing potential damage. Nobody was home when the fire broke out in a unit at Meadow View Apartments, said Clark County Fire & Rescue Division Chief Mike Jackson. Firefighters were called to 611 N.W. 20th Ave. at 2:49 p.m.

The oven had been left on the clean setting and ignited items on the stove, Jackson said. “The fire was luckily controlled with a single sprinkler head before we got there,” he said. There was minimal fire and water damage, though a neighboring unit may have some water damage, Jackson said. Without the sprinkler, the fire could have grown to be much worse and caused more damage. Fire sprinklers are activated by heat, going off when it reaches around 165 degrees.

Apartment Building, Residential

Centreville, VA – Sprinklers extinguish unattended cooking fire in four-story apartment building

A Saturday morning fire at a Centreville apartment injured one person and left nine other people without a home, according to the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department.

Fire and rescue units responded at about 10 a.m. to the blaze at 5852 Post Corners Trail, in a complex behind the Newgate shopping center. They found that a sprinkler system had extinguished the fire before they arrived, but light smoke filled the four-story apartment.

One occupant was transported to the Washington Hospital Burn Center by ambulance with non-life threatening injuries, the fire department said. Damage to the apartment is estimated at $23,000.

Smoke alarms alerted the apartment’s 10 occupants to the fire, which was caused by unattended food left on a kitchen stove, the fire department said. The Red Cross is helping the occupants.

Apartment Building, Residential

Toms River, NJ – Overnight apartment fire extinguished by single sprinkler

A flash fire caused when a resident tried to extinguish burning candle wax was controlled when the building’s automatic sprinkler system turned on, fire officials said Monday.

Two apartments at Greenview Way in The Villages at Bey Lea apartment complex were left uninhabitable due to damage from the fire Sunday evening, said James Mercready, director of the Toms River Bureau of Fire Prevention. One person suffered minor injuries, he said.

Firefighters from the Pleasant Plains Fire Company responded to the call at 11:20 p.m. and upon arrival found the fire — in the bathroom of one apartment — had been extinguished by a single fire sprinkler head that activated, Mercready said.

Toms River Fire Inspector Dominick Roselli determined the fire was accidental. Candle wax caught fire on the kitchen stove, and when the resident put it in the bathroom’s shower to put it out, it created a flash fire, Mercready said.

 The resident suffered minor injuries but refused medical attention, he said.

 Firefighters checked for extension of the fire and performed ventilation, as well as shutting off electric and gas service to the two units because of the damage, he said.

 Mercready said it is the second fire extinguished by the automatic sprinkler system at the complex and fifth sprinker-controlled fire in the township since October.

 “In each case, one fire sprinkler head activated and controlled and suppressed the fire,” he said. “A properly designed, installed and maintained fire sprinkler system is an essential component in fire and life safety as well as property protection.”

 “The rate of effectiveness has been very good during the more than 100 years they have been in use in the United States,” Mercready said.

 Due to the extent of the damage, Roselli ruled two apartments uninhabitable, but six others in the building were able to be reoccupied, Mercready said.

Apartment Building, Residential

Suffolk, VA – Apartment fire contained to kitchen by sprinkler system

Firefighters responded to a residential fire in downtown Suffolk around 11 a.m. Sunday morning in the 200 block of East Washington Street. When crews arrived, they found that the fire had been suppressed by a sprinkler system in the kitchen of the second floor apartment.

The fire was contained to the kitchen and there was no extension of fire into other apartment units or into the retail businesses on the street level. There were no injuries. The kitchen fire was ruled accidental.

Apartment Building, Residential

Fort Collins, CO – Apartment kitchen fire extinguished by sprinkler system; No injuries

Firefighters responded to a kitchen fire at an apartment complex in south Fort Collins on Thursday evening that left one unit temporarily vacant. The flames were extinguished by fire sprinklers at 6915 Autumn Ridge Drive before Poudre Fire Authority arrived on scene shortly after 9:30 p.m. Thursday. No one was injured during the incident.

The fire caused an estimated $5,000 in damage and required those who live in the unit to temporarily relocate while restoration takes place, PFA said. It wasn’t immediately clear how the fire started in the kitchen.

Apartment Building, Residential

Temple, TX – Sprinklers stop spread of apartment fire caused by rechargeable battery

Investigators say a rechargeable battery for a radio controlled model airplane is what started a fire at a Temple apartment Tuesday afternoon. Temple Fire & Rescue crews responded to a fire call at about 3 p.m. at Pecan Pointe Apartments. Firefighters saw smoke coming from the apartment, and were able to quickly locate the flames and extinguish them.

Firefighters credit the building’s fire sprinkler system with limiting the fire damage to the one apartment, which received a little fire damage, along with moderate smoke and water damage. One downstairs apartment also received water damage.

No injuries were reported, but the fire displaced two families. The apartment is making arrangements to house those families. The fire, which was under control by 3:21 p.m., was ruled unintentional. Investigators say a rechargeable battery for a radio controlled model airplane is what started the blaze.

Temple PD and Scott & White EMS also responded to the call.

Apartment Building, Residential

Frederick, MD – Sprinklers contain Memorial Day apartment fire; No injuries reported

Crews arrived at the Mountain Glen Apartments in the 5700 block of Sugar Maple Court at 10:35 p.m. Monday to find smoke coming from the second floor of a three-story, garden-style apartment building, said Capt. Kevin Fox, a spokesman for the Frederick County Division of Fire and Rescue Services. The apartment’s sprinkler system helped contain the fire while firefighters were setting up.

“It was held to the stove and cabinet area of the kitchen and prevented from spreading into the rest of the building,” Fox said. “It took about 30 firefighters 10 minutes to bring it under control.”

The 12-unit building was evacuated during the firefighters’ response, but no one was displaced by the blaze and no injuries were reported, either to firefighters or residents, Fox said. Firefighters quickly determined that unattended cooking sparked the fire.

Apartment Building, Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential, Residential High Rise

Columbia, MO – Single sprinkler activates to control fire in apartments for seniors and disabled

Officials said unattended cooking was the cause of a Thursday fire in an apartment at Paquin Tower, 1201 Paquin St., according to a Columbia Fire Department news release. A fire department crew was dispatched at 9:39 p.m. to the apartment building, where water was spotted coming from under an apartment door.

According to the news release, one sprinkler head brought the fire under control and 84 percent of residential fires are contained by one sprinkler head. The crew remained on the scene to clean up the water in the apartment and in the hallway.

 

Apartment Building, Residential, Residential High Rise

Shreveport, LA – High-rise apartment blaze knocked down by sprinkler system

Firefighters were called to the high-rise Fairmont Apartments building in downtown Shreveport just before 7:00 Monday evening. Fire officials say the fire appeared to have started in the kitchen of a third floor apartment. Fortunately, the sprinkler system had mostly knocked out the fire before firefighters arrived.

“The sprinkler system did what it was supposed to do, save the owners of the building money, reduce the damage and minimize injuries to the occupants. So, the sprinkler system was effective in doing its job,” says Shreveport Fire Chief Fred Sanders. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.