The Yuma Fire Department received reports of an apartment fire at La Posada Apartments last Sunday around 1 p.m.
Fire crews found a stovetop fire in the apartment at the scene, but the fire sprinkler had extinguished the fire.
They say a pot of oil had splashed and burned the stove’s burner. The fire was thankfully extinguished before it could spread to the rest of the kitchen.
No injuries were reported.
Upon investigation, it was determined that single fire sprinkler had extinguished the fire started by lit candles inside one apartment. Fire investigators say the resident had lit several candles and then fallen asleep.
No one was injured.
“Fire sprinklers are on duty 24/7. They never sleep even when you do,” said McKinney Fire Marshal Mike Smith. “They are always there, ready to extinguish a fire before it can spread and cause a large amount of property damage.”
According to the National Fire Protection Association, candles start an average of 21 fires a day across the country.
Sixty people escaped, 49 adults and 11 children in 35 families, according to a Red Cross spokeswoman Sunday evening. They were given temporary shelter in a hotel.
Warwick Battalion Chief Thomas F. Brady said he heard the zone alarms, from first to second to third, track the smoke rising through the stairwells of the three-story building that is parallel to Warwick Avenue.
Smoke filled the lobby, Brady said, and firefighters could see flames entering from the hall.
He said the fire started in a basement storage area, set off a sprinkler near the boiler, then rolled across the ceiling and up the stairs to the first-floor hallway. The fire door on the right was closed, which he said prevented damage on that side, but rooms along the hallway going left from the elevator had burns on their doors from the top to about three feet above the floor.
Without knowing that everyone had escaped safely, the first engine called a second alarm to bring more help in searching. About 32 firefighters worked the scene.
No firefighters were hurt, Brady said, but two residents suffered smoke injuries and one slipped and fell on the ice.
The temperature was 18 degrees, Brady said, and residents did not have time to grab car keys or warm clothes. Buses arrived to take them to the Pilgrim Senior Center, so they could be warm while the Red Cross enrolled them for services.
Flames were arrested at the first floor within about a half hour of the first truck arriving and attacking the the origin area with a single hose, he said. Two companies worked the roof. The wind helped clear smoke after firefighters opened sliding glass doors in each room.
At about 5 a.m., firefighters provided escorts to allow one resident from each unit to retrieve keys, medications, cell phones and other necessities before the building, which had no water, heat or electricity, was secured.
Crews arrived on the scene at 10:27 p.m. to find the fire sprinkler system had contained a kitchen fire in an apartment on Farwell St. The building was being evacuated when firefighters arrived, and the fire was out by 10:45, according to McFarland Fire and Rescue.
Smoke was cleared from the building, and the fire sprinkler was restored. Most of the building tenants were able to return to their units before midnight, but the two adjacent units were relocated for the night to allow water remediation of their units’ fire sprinkler water to occur. The apartment with the fire will be uninhabitable for some time due to fire and smoke damage.
The tenant of that apartment was able to stay with family members in McFarland. The cause of the fire is under investigation and is believed to be accidental.
Damage estimates are pending further evaluation. All building occupants were able to evacuate, and no injuries occurred during the event.
With temperatures below zero on Monday night, Madison Metro assisted by providing a transit bus to allow tenants to remain warm during the incident, while the Monona Fire Department also assisted the McFarland crews.
The cold snap can have some significant effects on fire crews as well.
“The intense cold requires us to provide warm areas for the individuals displaced and the firefighters. Firefighters’ equipment will freeze, including our breathing apparatus, and may need thawing to be used. The firefighters that put the fire out last night had their turnout gear frozen while they were wearing it,” McFarland Fire and Rescue Chief Chris Dennis said. “We will rotate crews more frequently to keep firefighters warm and prevent cold injuries such as frostbite. Additionally, when using hose lines, we have to keep water flowing to prevent freezing in the lines, leading to ice on the ground and slip hazards.”
McFarland Fire and Rescue offered the following safety message to community members after the incident:
“The fire sprinklers contained the fire quickly and initiated the fire alarm system. The fire alarm system alerted the occupants and the 911 center of the fire. Without the fire sprinklers, the fire would have been much larger, and the outcome could have been much worse.”
The City of Williamsburg Fire Department, James City County Fire Department and York County Fire and Life Safety were all called on Saturday, Feb. 6 around 8:45 p.m to an apartment fire that occurred in the 1400 block of Middle Street.
There were 22 firefighters initially called for the incident.
When the first crew arrived on the scene at 8:49 p.m., they said they spotted smoke coming from the second-floor hallway in one of the buildings. This was when firefighters noticed a kitchen fire that had been put out by the building’s sprinkler system, which was in the unit where the fire started.
Firefighters conducted salvage and overhaul operations in the affected apartment and said there was no fire extension found. Additionally, there was no other smoke or fire on the other floors in the building, and the fire was under control by 9:08 p.m.
However, the apartments on the first floor (right under the unit where the fire happened) were affected by water damage, from the sprinkler system.
The apartment complex’s management relocated the two occupants who were displaced from the fire.
The City of Williamsburg’s Community Risk Reduction team is investigating the cause of the fire and said no injuries were reported.
The fire was located in an apartment building at 360 South and 400 West. SLC Fire responded around 1 p.m. according to Captain Anthony Burton.
Burton said the call came into emergency officials as an explosion from a refrigerator in an apartment on the third floor. When firefighters arrived they detected “light smoke” on that floor and executed an aggressive response with help from the building’s sprinkler system.
A West End apartment building was evacuated Thursday after a fire started on the 12th floor.
Firefighters were called to the building on West 9th Street and Central Avenue at about 11 a.m.
They said the sprinkler system took care of most of the fire. They did have the ventilate the floor to get out the smoke.
The building has a sprinkler system which extinguished the fire and RFD says the incident is now under control.
No one was hurt or killed during this fire.
The Racine Fire Department was called to the residence at 10:18 p.m.by an automatic sprinkler system water flow alarm. The sprinkler head had extinguished an accidental wastebasket fire in Apartment 210. There were no injuries.
However, the sprinkler caused an estimated $30,000 in damage to the ceiling, walls and contents of the downstairs unit, Apartment 110. Firefighters used tarps and other equipment to protect belongings in the apartment. Apartment 210, where the fire originated, sustained approximately $5,000 in minimal water damage and moderate smoke damage. The fire was determined to have been caused by discarding hot smoking materials in a wastebasket filled with tissue paper.
Captain Kyle McDaniel was one of the firemen on the call.
“We searched each room and JD made contact with him and roused him up,” said McDaniel. “That’s when we realized we had a victim in the room.”
McDaniel said they weren’t able to see their hands in front of their face; that’s how much smoke had filled the apartment.
However, it could’ve been a lot worse if the sprinkler system didn’t go off.
“95-percent of the fire was out when we made entry,” said McDaniel.
The cause of the fire was an electric wheelchair. It belonged to Stacey Todd, who was asleep in the next room.
“Oh man, I tell you what. It’s a scary thing; it’s scary,” said Todd. “But things happen in life, sometimes you can’t help it.”
Todd says he lost everything in the fire, losses that come particularly hard this time of year with the holidays just around the corner.
But he is keeping his spirits up.
“I thank God; that’s all I know,” said Todd. “Because I didn’t know anything. I want to thank the fire department because if they wouldn’t have come, I wouldn’t be here.”
For Captain McDaniel, he says being able to save a life just gives him more reason to do what he loves.
And as for Stacey Todd he’s staying in a motel until he can find some place else to stay or his apartment gets restored.
