Sprinklers had been activated and the building was evacuated for a fire inside a common kitchen area on the first floor of the building.
Damage from the fire, smoke and water from the sprinkler system was estimated at 10 thousand dollars.
The cause was listed as accidental and there were no injuries.
Johnston-Grimes Metropolitan firefighters were called to the Providence Point Apartments, in the 6200 block of NW 106th Street, in Johnston.
When they arrived, they were notified of a grease fire in the kitchen of a second-floor apartments. Firefighters found light smoke.
Firefighters said because of the fire and water damage from the sprinkler system, people living in two apartments were displaced.
The fire in the historic three-story building at 111 E. Fourth St. started around 10 p.m. between the building’s first and second floors, according to an email sent Tuesday morning by Loveland Fire Rescue Authority division chief and fire marshal Ned Sparks.
About 45 to 50 residents were either asleep or getting ready to go to bed, according to Sparks and the building’s owner, Astrid, who goes by one name. Fire Chief Mark Miller said no residents or firefighters were harmed.
Those residents have been displaced and won’t be able to return for one or two days, said Astrid, who was working through the channels to get electricity restored and have the building declared inhabitable again.
Sparks and Astrid said the fire sprinkler system that she had installed four months ago in the 40-apartment building saved many lives.
“I am convinced this fire would have had a huge loss of life and most likely the building would have been lost (quite probable the Elks Club and Cactus Grille too),” Sparks said in his email.
“Seeing firsthand how many of the people survived who would have perished in a catastrophic fire, I am reminded why we do what we do,” Sparks said.
In recent years, the Loveland Fire Rescue Authority has worked with the owners of the Lovelander and two other historic buildings downtown to have sprinkler systems installed.
Historic buildings are quick to burn, and the fires are difficult to fight once they start, Sparks said.
“Once it got going, we couldn’t have stopped it,” Sparks said. “The interstitial space in this area is massive and had the fire not been suppressed would have run through this space unchecked.”
But because of the sprinklers, the fire never really took off.
Two residents who saw the fire and helped evacuate their neighbors said a swamp cooler, which wasn’t running, caught fire.
“I was just about to go to bed when I smelled something funny,” said Jamie Bridgeman, the resident manager who lives on the second floor directly above the cooler with her husband. “Then I started seeing smoke.”
“One of my residents had gotten off work and pulled up behind the building. She started screaming ‘fire!’ I looked out my window, and my swamp cooler was engulfed in flames,” said Bridgeman, who said her hair was singed by the fire. “I just started screaming ‘fire’ and came down here and pulled the alarm.
“Then I went back up and stood in the middle and screamed, ‘Fire! Everybody get out,” she said.
Two residents got fire extinguishers from the hallway and stood outside the building, spraying onto the fire, she said.
Steve Dupont, a resident of the first floor, said most residents used the metal fire escapes on the back side of the building.
“Everybody was coming out like they were supposed to,” he said.
On Tuesday afternoon, he was standing outside the Lovelander, waiting to go inside to help retrieve the belongings of a friend whose nearby apartment was damaged by a sprinkler head that activated. Astrid said the ceiling fell in that apartment because of the water damage.
Astrid was busy on the phone Tuesday, talking with an electrical contractor about getting the power restored. He told her that she would need an engineer to verify that the structure still was sound, even though she said the fire was mostly confined to the exterior cooler unit.
“Let’s get this underway right now,” she said.
Astrid expressed concern for her residents, whom she described as normally just a few hundred dollars away from homelessness — the working poor, elderly people and students.
“We really could use a little help,” she said, breaking down in tears under her coronavirus face mask when asked what kind of help.
“They’re all law-abiding, very decent citizens of Loveland,” she said. “I wish they could come back this afternoon, but it sounds like 24 to 48 hours.”
Bridgeman, the manager, said Sparks gave residents vouchers for motel rooms Monday night, and eight people were able to take rooms. The rest, such as herself and her husband, either stayed with friends or paid for motel rooms themselves, although they couldn’t really afford it.
Bridgeman said she had been talking with the American Red Cross about getting more vouchers to house the displaced residents until they could move back in.
Astrid was busy on the phone Tuesday, talking with an electrical contractor about getting the power restored. He told her that she would need an engineer to verify that the structure still was sound, even though she said the fire was mostly confined to the exterior cooler unit.
“Let’s get this underway right now,” she said.
Astrid expressed concern for her residents, whom she described as normally just a few hundred dollars away from homelessness — the working poor, elderly people and students.
“We really could use a little help,” she said, breaking down in tears under her coronavirus face mask when asked what kind of help.
“They’re all law-abiding, very decent citizens of Loveland,” she said. “I wish they could come back this afternoon, but it sounds like 24 to 48 hours.”
Bridgeman, the manager, said Sparks gave residents vouchers for motel rooms Monday night, and eight people were able to take rooms. The rest, such as herself and her husband, either stayed with friends or paid for motel rooms themselves, although they couldn’t really afford it.
Bridgeman said she had been talking with the American Red Cross about getting more vouchers to house the displaced residents until they could move back in.
At about 6:30 p.m. the Des Moines Fire Department received calls of a grease fire that started while a person was cooking. According to Lt. Rick Thomas, with the Des Moines Fire Department, smoke filled the hallways of the 14th floor of the building.
Thomas said the sprinkler system helped put out the fire and residents will be allowed to return to their apartments soon. He said there were no injuries that are known at this time, and there was smoke and water damage.
Upon arrival shortly after 5 p.m., firefighters found an extinguished fire in a two-story multifamily unit. The fire started in the kitchen and was contained to the room of origin through activation of a fire sprinkler.
Firefighters assisted the homeowner in changing the sprinkler head to keep the system active and with salvage operations to limit the water damage. Fire crews remained on scene for approximately one hour.
Damage was estimated at $10,000. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
At 2:45 p.m. Sunday, the Racine Fire Department was dispatched to a report of a fire in an upper apartment at 2328 Loni Lane, west of Highway 31, according to a Fire Department news release. Occupants were standing safely outside when firefighters arrived.
After arriving on scene, firefighters found an automatic fire sprinkler system spraying water from a single sprinkler head into the kitchen at the apartment, where a fire started on the stove top and had spread to the cabinets before the sprinkler system activated. A smoke alarm was sounding in the apartment.
Instead of battling what would most likely have been a fully involved apartment fire, firefighters had to merely turn off the main water control to the fire sprinkler system to stop further damage, Fire Department officials said.
The Red Cross was contacted to assist the four people in two apartments who were displaced due to the fire.
The tenants are expected to be able to return to their apartments within a few days.
The Fire Department said that lessons learned from the incident were:
FVCC says no one was injured in the fire. They added that the building’s fire and sprinkler system worked properly, and the Kalispell Fire Department put the fire out.
Campus officials said some students were still living in the dorm. While only a few were affected by the fire, they say all of them were relocated to other rooms.
Authorities were not able to confirm the cause of the fire.
Pahrump Valley Fire and Rescue Services Chief Scott Lewis said crews were dispatched for a report of a structure fire at Inspirations Senior Living facility on Honeysuckle Street just before 7 p.m. on Monday, April 6.
“While responding, crews were notified of a laundry room fire, with an evacuation underway,” Lewis said. “Crews arrived on location and found white smoke coming from the open doorways. They completed a 360 size-up, risk assessment and determined that evacuations were underway and we had to coordinate that.”
As a result, Lewis also said additional crews were added to the assignment, including Nye County Sheriff’s Office deputies.
“We located a working fire in the laundry room with a sprinkler activation, so not only did we have to deal with the fire issue, but also the water that was pouring out of the sprinkler heads,” he said. “Crews quickly controlled the fire and the flow of water out of the sprinkler system at the riser. They were able to ventilate the smoke out of the building and return the residents back to their respective rooms. There were no injuries.”
“The area of origin for the fire was the back, right rear burner on range top. Radiant heat ignited the microwave and cabinetry directly above. Responding FD found no flames or smoke, burner still glowing red as it had not been turned off. Fire was extinguished by sprinkler head on ceiling approximately 10′ away from fire. “
04/11/2020 20:28 #20-1148 The West Bend Fire Department was dispatched to a multi family condominium, 470 N Silverbrook Dr., on Saturday, April 11th, 2020, at 8:28 p.m., for a grease fire on the stove in one of the second floor units. Engine 1, Truck 2, and Battalion 1 responded. The owner of the condo met firefighters outside and stated that the fire was out. He stated that he was cooking on the stove and the oil in the pan flared up when he pulled the cover off. He attempted to use a fire extinguisher but the fire grew in size with flames from the stove reaching the bottom of the microwave. The sprinkler system activated and suppressed the fire.
