Category Archives: Residential

Residential, Single Family Home

El Granada, CA – Home sprinkler system assists firefighters in suppressing deck fire at home

A small fire damaged a deck and portion of an El Granada house Friday afternoon. Maresha Leeds, who lives in the home at Isabella Avenue and Columbus Street with her husband, was in her kitchen when the fire struck around 1 p.m. “I don’t know how it happened,” she said. “It seemed so spontaneous.”

Leeds said she was feeling uneasy around the time the fire started and didn’t know why. When her two golden retrievers started barking she thought something must be up. Then a ring of the doorbell clarified things. “My gardener and my UPS man told me my house was on fire,” Leeds said. The pair called 911 and Leeds worked on getting her dogs and her pet bird out of the house.

Coastside Fire Protection District Battalion Chief Ari Delay said at the scene that the cause of the fire was still under investigation, but appeared to originate from the second-level deck. He said flames were shooting up 10 to 20 feet when firefighters arrived and smoke from the blaze could be seen all the way from Half Moon Bay. Leeds said dog beds and dog houses were the only items on that second-level deck. She noted that her gardener reported smelling something like gasoline coming from the flames, but that she doesn’t store any gasoline in her home.

Delay said roughly 25 firefighters responded to the fire. A home sprinkler system assisted the firefighters with the dousing of the flames. Structural damage affected the deck and the neighboring room inside the home. A larger portion of the home suffered smoke and water damage, Delay said. Leeds indicated that she was fortunate the fire didn’t escalate into anything worse. “I’m so glad I was home,” she said.

Apartment Building, Residential

Hillsboro, OR – Apartment fire caused by resident smoking in bed is limited by sprinkler system; No injuries

An apartment’s sprinkler system is credited for limiting the damage of a mattress fire early Friday morning.  Hillsboro Fire and Rescue say the fire started in a unit at Wyndhaven Apartments on SW Edgeway Drive. A woman told officials she was smoking in bed and fell asleep. The sprinkler system in her unit put out the fire but caused damage to furniture in the apartment and seeped into the apartment downstairs. Other resident’s in the complex fled. No one was injured.  The total damage of the fire is estimated at $5,000.

Apartment Building, Residential

Madison, WI – Apartment building fire contained to room of origin by sprinkler system; No injuries reported

Ten people living in Downtown apartment building were looking for other places to stay temporarily, after a small fire set off an automatic sprinkler system. The fire was reported at about 12:40 p.m. Wednesday at the Uncommon Apartments in the 100 block of North Bedford Street, the Madison Fire Department said.  The fire was in an apartment on the fourth floor, but most of the displaced residents lived on the third floor.  Nobody was hurt.  “An automatic sprinkler activation kept the fire contained to the room of origin, which suffered smoke and fire damage,” said fire department spokeswoman Cynthia Schuster. “A resident reported a candle was burning in the room prior to the fire.”  No damage estimate was given.

Apartment Building, Residential

St. Cloud, MN – Apartment kitchen fire put out by sprinkler system; No injuries

A kitchen fire Sunday displaced residents of an apartment in Germain Towers in downtown St. Cloud.  The St. Cloud Fire Department was called to the apartments at 905 St. Germain St. shortly before 8:30 p.m. The occupant was cooking and a grease fire started on the stove, acting Battalion Chief Mitch Peterson reported. A nearby sprinkler was activated and put out the fire. No one was injured.

The occupants of the affected unit were displaced, but all other residents were allowed to return to their apartments. Water damage from the sprinklers extended through the first, second and third floors, Peterson reported. The damage is estimated at $25,000.

Apartment Building, Residential

Gainesville, FL – Apartment fire held in check by sprinkler system; Two cats rescued

Two cats were rescued and a fire was contained to a bathroom in a Gainesville apartment Friday night, an incident that shows the value of sprinkler systems in buildings, said Gainesville Fire Rescue.  The fire was reported a 9:45 p.m. at the Pine Hill Estates apartment complex at 1426 NW Third Ave. The fire alarm monitoring company indicated it was a “water-flow” alarm, GFR District Chief Allen Siorek said in a press release.  A neighbor also called in to report smoke coming from the building.

Firefighters forced their way into the apartment and found a fire in the bathroom. Siorek said the sprinkler system had activated, keeping the fire in check. Two cats were rescued but no one was in the apartment when the fire occurred.  “While the fire is still under investigation, the importance of a working sprinkler system cannot be overstated,” Siorek said in the release. “Without these live-saving devices, the fire would have spread considerably, potentially damaging adjacent apartments and endangering the lives of other tenants who were home, including the residents above.”

Apartment Building, Residential

Manchester, NH – Apartment fire held in check by sprinkler system; No injuries reported

Two people were rescued from a fire inside an apartment above Caesarios Pizza Friday night. Just before 9:30 p.m. a box alarm sounded at 1061 Elm St.  As firefighters were responding, dispatch received a call from an occupant of apartment 210 indicating that there was an emergency in their apartment and that they were trapped.  Dispatchers could not get clarification from the occupant on what type of emergency that they were reporting. After further inquiry they reported a possible explosion.  Fire crews from Central Station arrived several minutes after receiving the call and discovered a fire in apartment 210 with occupants still inside.

Firefighters accessed the three-bedroom apartment through the only access available which led them into the living room that was on fire. Firefighters searched the two adjacent rooms for the known trapped occupants and rescued them, removing them to the exterior hall through a barricaded secondary egress, and then to the outside where they were evaluated by AMR ambulance personnel. Though shaken up they were not injured and refused transport to the hospital.

Elm Street was closed to traffic during the emergency. Damage is estimated at $10,000.00. Caesario’s Pizza and Element Lounge both suffered water runoff from the sprinkler system.  Manchester Health Department responded and met with representatives of both businesses.

The 911 dispatcher kept the occupants on the phone (helping them stay calm) the whole time, until they were rescued. A working sprinkler system kept the fire in check until firefighters arrived and extinguished the remainder of the fire. Heavy smoke filled most of the second floor and the third and fourth floors had moderate smoke from the fire. The entire building was evacuated for approximately one hour, as were the two effected businesses. The fire was caused by careless disposal of smoking materials into a waste basket next to the recliner in the living room. This fire is classified as accidental.

District Fire Chief Mike Gamache said he attributes the safe rescue of the two people trapped inside the apartment to a combination of a working sprinkler system, the calm professionalism of the 911 dispatch team and the rapid efficient response of the Manchester Fire Department.

College/University (on campus), Residence Hall/Dormitory

Greencastle, IN – Early morning fire at DePauw University residence hall extinguish by sprinkler system; No injuries

No students were injured in a small early-morning Tuesday fire at a DePauw University residence hall.  At 3:12 a.m., the Greencastle Fire Department was dispatched to Mason Hall at 402 E. Anderson St. on the report of a fire alarm.

Fire crews arrived two minutes later and began a search of the building. They discovered light smoke in Room 310, with the sprinkler system having already extinguished a small fire.

Greencastle Fire Chief John Burgess reported the fire appears to have originated from a piece of electrical equipment, but the case remains under investigation. The fire and sprinkler activation were contained to a single room, with an estimated $20,000 in damage occurring due to water.

Burgess reported no structural damage, noting that the sprinkler system performed its function of containing and extinguishing the fire. “Everything worked like it should,” he said.

The alarm led to the evacuation of the building. In an early morning email to faculty and staff, university president Mark McCoy reported that many students went to the Memorial Student Union Building or other campus structures.

McCoy further stated that a total of 140 students are housed in Mason but many had already left campus for Thanksgiving.

“As a campus, let’s give thanks for the fact that everyone is safe,” McCoy wrote to the staff, “and that is in large part to the great work of the Greencastle Fire Department, campus police and our caring and capable student life staff.”

Firefighters remained on the scene until 6:14 a.m. The building was reopened to students later Tuesday morning.

Mason Hall is a four-story structure situated on the Ubben Quad of the DePauw campus.

While false alarms are common in DePauw structures, longtime members of the campus community know they are not something to be taken lightly.

In April 2002 Rector Hall, which had been adjacent to Mason Hall, was destroyed by fire.

Although all students escaped safely, a pair of firefighters were injured in the large blaze that required 12 departments to combat.

The Rector Hall fire was caused by an electrical problem.

Apartment Building, Residential

Oak Creek, WI – Sprinkler system activates to help limit damage in apartment kitchen fire

Oak Creek police and fire responded to the Oak Shores apartment on Nov. 10 on a report of a fire.  According to the police report, an apartment resident was cooking diner with oil on the stove when the stove caught fire.  Oak Creek fire advised there was no fire damage to anything, however the fire caused the sprinkler system to go off, causing water damage to multiple units.

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.

Residence Hall/Dormitory, Residential

Tallahassee, FL – Fire at Florida State dormitory kept in check by sprinkler system

A Wednesday evening trash compactor fire filled Florida State’s Salley Hall dormitory with smoke, forcing residents to evacuate.

At 6:19 p.m., Tallahassee Fire Department crews were called to the residence hall located on West Call Street near Chieftan Way.

An automatic sprinkler system kept the fire under control. When firefighters arrived, they cleared the smoke from the seventh and eighth floors. Residents have since returned to the dorm. No fire damage or injuries were reported.

FSU’s website said Salley Hall has the capacity to house 570 students. It was built in 1962 and renovated in 2000. Named after longtime professor Nathaniel Moss Salley, it once housed the FSU football team and was the first on-campus dorm to become co-ed.