Category Archives: Residential High Rise

Apartment Building, Residential, Residential High Rise

Pleasantville, NJ – Sprinklers help extinguish mattress fire at high-rise apartment building; No injuries reported

City firefighters extinguished a mattress fire Tuesday evening in one of the city’s new downtown high-rise buildings. No injuries were reported in the fire, which was reported 7:23 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 10 at apartment 514 in the Main at City Center, 49 S. Main St.  Water damage was reported in the unit and in the apartments below, according to police Capt. Matt Hartman.  Pleasantville firefighters brought the fire under control at 7:35 p.m., Hartman said.  They found heavy smoke on the fifth floor when they arrived, and Pleasantville Police Department Squad 2 evacuated the building’s occupants. Their efforts included carrying disabled residents down stairwells.  Pleasantville Fire Department Shift 1, under the direction of Battalion Chief Ken Crawford, extinguished the fire with the help of the building’s sprinkler system.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential, Residential High Rise

Evanston, IL – Fire at senior residential high rise controlled by sprinkler system; No injuries reported

Evanston fire crews responded to a report of a fire on the 9th floor of The Mather at 425 Davis St. shortly before noon.  Fire Division Chief Paul Polep says a resident of the retirement community had left a stove top burner on which ignited a basket of goods on the counter top.  Polep says the the sprinkler system in the apartment had brought the fire under control by the time fire fighters arrived.  Residents of the floor evacuated safely, Polep says, and there were no injuries reported.

Residential, Residential High Rise

Chicago, IL – Sprinkler system extinguishes fire in low income residential high-rise

Last Friday, fire sprinklers controlled and extinguished a fire in a trash compactor room at the Lawson House YMCA at 30 West Chicago Avenue in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood. The 24-story residential high-rise, which was built in 1934, is the largest single-room occupancy supportive housing facility in the Midwest with nearly 600 apartment units.

“Some of the residents in the low-income building are formerly homeless, so a fire that could potentially displace them again would be devastating. Fire sprinklers saved the day for the hundreds of people that live there,” says Tom Lia, executive director of the nonprofit Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board.

Lia also notes that the fire sprinkler save is a good reminder to Chicago high-rise building owners that the city’s deadline to retrofit high-rises with fire sprinklers by January 1, 2017, is fast approaching.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential High Rise

Southfield, MI – Early morning fire in senior high-rise complex put out by sprinkler system; No injuries reported

The all-clear has been given after some scary, smoky moments inside a senior living complex in Southfield early Thursday morning.  Fire crews were called around 3:30 a.m. to Highland Towers off Greenfield Road near Interstate 696 because the fire alarms were going off. Many residents saw and smelled smoke.  Firefighters were door to door on all 12 floors trying to wake everyone up and learn where the smoke was coming from.

“We didn’t know where the fire came from,” says Deborah Taylor-Kiel. “I just smelled the smoke because the doors shut and the fire alarm went off in my apartment where I live, and that’s very scary.”

Eventually, firefighters learned someone threw something down the trash shoot which started a fire in the trash room. The sprinkler system was able to put the fire out.

No one was hurt and nobody’s individual apartment was damaged, so everyone was allowed back in their homes. Some parts of the building have water damage now, though. 

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential High Rise

Lafayette, LA – Sprinkler system activates in high-rise senior apartment building fire; No injuries reported

The fire originated in an apartment on the fourth floor of Evangeline Elderly Apartments. It was caused by an occupant who left a pot of grease unattended on the stove top. The grease ignited and caught the cabinets in the kitchen on fire. The sprinkler system in the apartment activated and quickly extinguished the fire. The kitchen sustained minimal fire damage. However, heavy water damage was observed seeping through light fixtures on the first floor.

Concerned of electrical hazards from the water, 69 tenants were evacuated and later transported to two local hotels. The management company arranged for the transportation and lodging.

Acadian Ambulance, Lafayette Police, and American Red Cross assisted fire personnel with the care of the elderly tenants. No one sustained any injuries.

The cause of the fire was ruled an accident.

ORIGINAL STORY:A small fire that broke out Tuesday evening at Evangeline Elderly Apartments in Lafayette has inadvertently caused big problems for more than 60 of its residents.

According to information from the Lafayette Fire Department, a small fire broke out in a fourth-floor apartment’s kitchen Tuesday, triggering the building’s sprinkler system. The fire was extinguished before firefighters arrived at the scene; however, the water from the sprinkler system caused another issue.

As a result of the water from the sprinkler system, firefighters worked to evacuate about 65 of the complex’s residents.

“The fourth floor on down has sustained some extent of water damage,” Lafayette Fire Department spokesman Alton Trahan said in an email. “Water is seeping through some of the electrical fixtures on each floor.”

Apartment Building, Residential, Residential High Rise

Victoria, BC, Canada – Stove fan fire in high-rise apartment building doused by sprinkler system

A small fire in an apartment building on Fisgard Street will likely have residents of least a few units looking for somewhere to stay tonight. Crews were called to the 12-story Hudson Mews building at 780 Fisgard just before 8 p.m.

People living in the 120-unit building were forced out as firefighters arrived and searched for the cause. It turned out to be a fire in a stove fan on the fifth floor of the building.

“When crews arrived on scene, they found that a suite on the fifth floor had had sprinkler activation,” said Victoria Fire Department Acting Battalion Chief Mark Robertson.

“it was caused by a small fire in a hood vent.” The fire doesn’t appear to have caused much damage but it set off sprinklers.

“The fire has been extinguished but there was quite a bit of water damage to the suites below,” said Robertson.  City of Victoria Emergemcy Social Service attended to take care of any residents that were unable to return to their suites.

The building’s management team assisted with contacting their repair contractors and organizing their residents.  Those who could return home were allowed back in about 45 minutes later.

The building opened in May 2014.

Residential, Residential High Rise

Nashville, TN – Elevator motor fire in high-rise condominium building extinguished by sprinkler system

Firefighters responded to a downtown Nashville condo building after an elevator motor caught fire.  The fire broke out at Virdian Condos on the 400 block of Church Street around 3:15 Tuesday afternoon.  Crews on scene said that an elevator motor caught fire. It was put out by the sprinkler system before firefighters got on scene.  No one was injured during the incident.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential High Rise

Bradenton, FL – Fire at senior and assisted living facility extinguished by sprinkler system

A kitchen fire has damaged apartments in a Manatee County assisted living facility.  According to the facility management, a guest of a resident at the Westminister Towers & Shores left a basket on a stovetop. The contents inside the basket soon caught fire. The fire was quickly contained and extinguished by the automatic fire sprinkler system and Bradenton Fire Department.  No one was injured during the fire.  Westminster Towers & Shores will be relocating the three residents whose apartments need to be restored.

Residential, Residential High Rise

San Jose, CA – Early morning fire in high-rise apartment building held in check by sprinkler system

Roughly 40 to 60 residents in a 12-story high-rise apartment building in downtown San Jose are without a home for at least a week after a Sunday morning fire, San Jose fire officials said.  A faulty light fixture sparked the blaze at 4:22 a.m., immediately activating the building’s sprinkler system, San Jose Fire Department Captain Mitch Matlow said.

“The sprinkler system did it’s job,” Matlow said.

The fire, which was reported at Sixth and East Santa Clara streets, was extinguished quickly, but cleaning up the water damage will keep residents out of the building for at least a week, according to Matlow. “The people were sheltered in a VTA bus for a while, then they had to go back in and get their belongings because it’s going to be about a week before these people can come back to their homes,” Matlow said. “They have to dry the building out and make sure all the electrical is working before they can reoccupy the building.”

The American Red Cross will temporarily house and feed the displaced residents, according to Demetrious McCarthy from the Red Cross. That shelter is up and running at Burnett Middle School in San Jose, the Red Cross said.

Residential, Residential High Rise

Honolulu, HI – Sprinkler system suppresses fire on 15th floor of 42-story high rise; No injuries reported

More than 40 firefighters responded on Tuesday afternoon to a two-alarm fire at a high-rise building in Kakaako, the Honolulu Fire Department said.

Officials said the fire broke out around 4:30 p.m. at a 42-story building located at 425 South St. Firefighters arrived to find smoke emanating from the 15th floor. However, the fire had already been extinguished by a sprinkler and a bystander who used a cabinet fire hose.  Firefighters remained on scene to ensure complete extinguishment and removal of excess water.

No one was reported in the unit at the time of the fire.  Damage is estimated at $21,000. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.