Category Archives: Residential

Apartment Building, Residential

Saskatoon, SK, Canada – Sprinkler system assists firefighters in extinguishing early morning apartment fire

At around 1:40 a.m. CST, the Saskatoon Fire Department responded to a call of smoke coming from an apartment complex on the 1300 block of 20th Street W. A mattress had caught fire in the building and its occupants were forced outside. Ventilation fans were put in place to clear the smoke after firefighters were able to put out the fire with the help of an existing water sprinkler head. The cause of the fire is undetermined at this point.

Residential High Rise, Townhouse / Condominium

Highland Beach, FL – Fire at oceanfront high-rise condominium building controlled with help from sprinkler system

Delray Beach Fire Rescue was called to an oceanfront Highland Beach high-rise condominium last Sunday afternoon when a fire started in a fourth-floor unit. No one was injured in the fire, according to Delray Beach Fire Rescue spokesman Capt. Kevin Saxton.

“The fire is out, but there is significant water damage to the building because of the sprinkler activation and our suppression effort,” Saxton said. Saxton said he did not yet know what started the fire in the unit at the Wiltshire House Condominiums, 2909 South Ocean Blvd. The call alerting the fire was made at about 3:45 p.m.

Apartment Building, Residential

Longmont, CO – Automatic sprinkler system douses apartment fire; No injuries

1 Comment

One person was displaced after a fire Sunday at a Longmont apartment complex at 630 Peck Drive, according to the Red Cross. Longmont fire went out on a report of a fire alarm around 11 a.m. and found an automatic sprinkler system had doused a fire in an apartment on the second floor, said Longmont Fire Department spokeswoman Molly Crop.

She said no one was home at the time, except a dog in the bedroom that wasn’t injured, but there was significant smoke and water damage. “The sprinklers did their job,” she said.  The Red Cross is providing emergency lodging for the resident.

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

New York, NY – Early morning residence hall fire at Columbia University contained by sprinkler system; No injuries

A small fire broke out in a fifth-floor suite of Elliott Hall at 2:20 a.m. on Sunday, with water damage from the sprinkler response affecting rooms on the second through fifth floors of the building.

After students were evacuated from the building following the sounding of the first alarm early Sunday morning, the Diana Center was opened for residents of Elliott Hall to wait in while the building was inspected by Public Safety, according to a resident assistant in Elliott Hall.

The building was cleared for students to re-enter at around 3:30 a.m., but due to the sprinkler system’s response to the fire, the rooms immediately adjacent to the source, as well as the ones located several floors below it experienced flooding. A Barnard spokesperson confirmed that some administrative offices and hallway carpeting were affected by water damage.

According to the RA, who wished to remain anonymous because RAs are prohibited by Residential Life to speak to the press, the flooding was caused by the sprinkler in the source room and not by multiple sprinklers.

Residents living on the fifth floor near the room where the fire began said that aside from some smoke and ash in their rooms, they experienced no significant damage.

The RA said that there was a second fire alert after the building was reopened, but that they thought that it had to do with the alert system and was not indicative of a second fire. It did, however, drive some students from the building for the night.

Fifth-floor resident Maya Edwards, BC ’17, said that, although she did not leave for the night, she knew of students who left to stay with friends in other buildings.

Although Barnard’s emergency alert notification system was not used for the fire, the RA said that they didn’t think that was a problem.

“I feel like it was very contained so I feel like it wasn’t the same magnitude as in the 600s,” the RA said, referencing last year’s fire in 600 West 116th Street.

Facilities is still working to address the problems caused by the flooding, but the building is fully operational, a Barnard spokesperson confirmed

Apartment Building, Residential

Fayetteville, NC – Apartment balcony fire contained with help from sprinkler system; No injuries

Fayetteville firefighters are investigating a fire that broke out in an apartment building Monday afternoon, a Fayetteville Fire Department news release said. Firefighters responded to an apartment fire at 12:38 p.m. in the 2800 block of Amelia Drive, off of Levy Drive, off of Robeson Street, the release said.

The apartment complex is near Ashley Elementary School. Firefighters arrived and found a fire on the second floor balcony of the three-story apartment building, the release said.

Firefighters contained the fire to the exterior of the building with assistance from the fire sprinkler system, the release said. There were no injuries and no families were displaced by the fire, the release said. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.

Apartment Building, Residential

Macon, GA – (READER REPORTED) 8th floor fire contained to one apartment with help from sprinklers

***Thank you to a Sprinkler Saves reader who pointed out that sprinklers helped contain this fire to a single apartment.***

The Macon-Bibb Fire Department is still at an apartment complex after a fire started on the eighth floor Monday night.

The fire started around 6 o’clock at the Dempsey Apartments, located at 523 Cherry Street.

“There was significant damage to the floor,” chief Marvin Riggins said. “Fire investigators are checking to see if other floors were affected, and how the fire started.”

Apartment Building, Residential

Vicksburg, MS – Sprinkler system keeps apartment kitchen fire from spreading; No injuries

Food burning on a stove was the cause of a fire early Friday afternoon that heavily damaged the kitchen of a third floor apartment at Carmel Manor, 910 Bowman St., Vicksburg Fire Chief Charles Atkins said. He said firefighters were called about 1:09 p.m. He said a sprinkler system in the apartment managed to keep the fire from spreading and contained it to the kitchen area. He said the apartment, an adjacent apartment and a second floor apartment had water damage. No one was injured.

Residential, Residential High Rise

Rochester, NY – Kitchen fire on 14th floor of residential high-rise controlled with help from sprinkler system; No injuries

There was a small fire Tuesday night at the city’s new downtown residential high rise. It started as the result of a cooking accident in the kitchen of one of the units on the 14th floor of Tower 280 around 8 p.m. The automatic sprinkler system that was triggered did cause water damage to three elevators, to the apartment where the fire started and some units below it.  No one was injured.

Tower 280 opened in January. Ken Glazer of Buckingham Properties tells WXXI News about ten percent of the building’s units are now occupied

Other Business, Residential

Oakland, CA – Sprinkler activates to help control fire in mixed use building

Firefighters quickly extinguished a small structure fire Tuesday afternoon in Oakland near the Fruitvale BART station, according to authorities.   Crews were dispatched to a building in the 1200 block of 37th Avenue at 4:04 p.m. on report of a fire.  A single room was burning on the second floor of a three-story structure with residential units above commercial space on the ground floor.

The fire was put out by the first arriving crews and a lone sprinkler head that activated, according to firefighters. Further details were not immediately available.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Roseburg, OR – Kitchen fire at retirement home is contained by sprinkler system

A fire broke out at a Roseburg retirement home Monday morning, Roseburg Fire Department officials said. Around 7:30 a.m. Monday firefighters were dispatched to Linus Oakes Retirement Village on NW Van Pelt Blvd where they found the fire had been contained to the kitchen area of apartment #23 and extinguished by the building’s automatic sprinkler system.

Officials say a wheelchair-bound resident fled the apartment before the sprinklers activated. Firefighters located the resident’s cat, which they removed to safety. Investigators say the fire was likely caused by the apartment’s 82-year-old resident, who was trying to remove a piece of bread that was stuck in her energized toaster.

While probing the interior of the toaster with a fork she saw flames develop and spread to the wall of the kitchen, officials said. She initially tried to extinguish it by smothering it. Failing that, she left her apartment to alert management.

Roseburg Fire Dept. reminds citizens to unplug appliances before working on them or contact a professional to investigate the cause of the problem. Energized toasters and other appliances pose a significant risk of electric shock and fire hazard if damaged or used improperly.

Officials also noted the automatic sprinkler system in the apartment worked as designed, containing the fire damage to the kitchen area with the activation of just one sprinkler head. Although the apartment sustained some water damage from the sprinkler, the smoke and fire damage throughout the rest of the building was minimized substantially, officials said, saving both the structure and lives.