Category Archives: Residential

Apartment Building, Residential

Madison, WI – Fourth floor apartment cooking fire extinguished by fire sprinkler system; No injuries reported

Madison firefighters responded to a kitchen fire Saturday evening after cooking oil caught fire on a stove top.

Firefighters arrived to the 100 block of North Livingston Street at 6:15 p.m. Crews made their way to the fourth floor of an apartment building where they encountered water in the hallway.

According to an incident report, firefighters found that the building’s fire sprinkler system had activated and extinguished the fire. Officials said the water had also made its way to the apartments below.

The two occupants of the apartment told firefighters they were not injured.

According to the report, fire damage was minimal. Four apartment units sustained water damage from the sprinklers.

Apartment Building, Residential

Stafford, VA – Single sprinkler head activates to control third-floor apartment fire; No injuries reported

Flames went up and a sprinkler system activated at a Stafford County apartment complex.

Fire crews were called Friday, April 11, 2020, at 6:22 a.m., to 855 Abberley Drive, near the Cavalier Family Skating Center, for a report of a fire in a third-floor apartment.

When they arrived, crews found smoke in the third-floor hallway, and fire in the kitchen of a third-floor apartment. The fire was extinguished before it could spread to other apartments, said county fire chief Joseph Cardello.

Several apartments sustained water damage, and a property management company was working to clean up and help the affected residents.

Smoke detectors activated the fire alarm for the entire building and a sprinkler head in the affected apartment activated. No injuries were reported.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, said Cardello.

Apartment Building, Residential

Salisbury, MD – Sprinkler system controls apartment fire intentionally set by tenant; No injuries reported

The Maryland State Fire Marshal says a Salisbury man has been charged with intentionally setting a fire at his apartment Friday night. 

According to the fire marshal’s office, crews with the Salisbury Fire Department responded to an automatic fire alarm call shortly before 11:30 p.m. at the Pine Bluff Village Apartments on Riverside Drive. While on their way, officials say the call was upgraded to a building fire.

Once on scene, crews says people were already evacuating. The fire was in a second floor apartment, being controlled by the building’s automatic fire sprinkler system. It took about 45 minutes to bring the fire under control.

The fire marshal’s office arrived on scene, and crews said they determined it was incendiary. Investigations determined the tenant was responsible for setting the fire in the apartment.

The Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office arrested 38-year-old Alan Jackson Banks III at a nearby convenience store. Banks was charged with first-degree arson and reckless endangerment. 

There were no reported injuries. 

Residential, Single Family Home

Redding, CA – Fire sprinklers stop garage fire from spreading after batteries catch on fire; No injuries reported

Redding firefighters responded to a residential fire which they later learned was started by a failed RC car battery.

On Thursday, at 7:39 p.m., the Redding Fire Department (RFD) responded to a reported structure fire on Hollow Lane.

When firefighters arrived, they found a mostly extinguished fire within the garage of the home.

RFD says the homeowner and his family saw smoke and flames coming from the garage and reacted quickly with fire extinguishers and water hoses. The home also had an automatic fire sprinkler system which fire investigators say helped in keeping the fire from spreading.

After an investigation, RFD learned the fire was caused by failed rechargeable batteries used in RC cars. They say the battery was being charged when it failed, ignited and spread fire to the surrounding, plastic items on a shelving unit.

RFD says the garage suffered moderate to major fire and smoke damage, but due to the swift actions of the homeowner and the fire sprinkler system, fire was limited to the garage.

Nobody was injured in this incident.

Residential, Residential High Rise

Hagerstown, MD – Trash chute fire in high-rise complex for elderly and disabled residents extinguished by fire sprinklers; No injuries reported

Smoke from a fire in a trash chute drove residents of Potomac Towers from their apartments Wednesday night, but no one was hurt and there was no serious damage to the building, authorities said.

The cause of the fire at the complex on West Baltimore Street in Hagerstown is under investigation, city Fire Marshal Doug DeHaven said.

Several residents who were exposed to smoke were evaluated at the scene by Community Rescue Service, but none required treatment, according to DeHaven and Hagerstown Fire Department Battalion Chief Adam Hopkins.

The complex consists of two connected, high-rise buildings that provide housing for elderly and disabled residents. The 14-story Potomac Towers North has 200 apartments and the eight-story Potomac Towers South has 126 units, according to the Hagerstown Housing Authority website.

Smoke was reported in the upper floors of the larger building around 8:20 p.m. and an alarm monitoring company reported smoke detectors activating on the seventh and 12th floors. Firefighters arrived to find smoke throughout the building, DeHaven said.

Trash stuck in the chute around the fifth floor was burning, but the sprinkler system in the chute activated and the debris slid down into the bin and compactor in the basement, he said.

“The sprinkler did its job and kept it as a contained fire that we were able to deal with quickly,” Hopkins said. “We would have had a much larger fire in the basement and a more significant smoke condition throughout the building.”

Firefighters extinguished the burning debris in the basement in about 10 to 15 minutes, he said, but were on the scene for a total of about two hours cleaning up water on the third and fifth floors and venting smoke from the building.

Some residents evacuated and others were permitted to go out onto their balconies to get away from the smoke, Hopkins said.

He estimated one group of about 25 people evacuated on one side of the building, and a group of about 40 people exited to the other side.

“We had a significant number of occupants who were affected by this fire,” DeHaven said.

Fire doors between the two buildings were closed, and the smaller building was not affected, Hopkins said.

DeHaven said damage was contained to the trash chute, compactor and bin, and water in the basement flowed into floor drains.

Responding with the Hagerstown Fire Department and Community Rescue Service were units from Funkstown Volunteer Fire Co.,  Halfway Volunteer Fire Co., Longmeadow Volunteer Fire Co., Maugansville Goodwill Volunteer Fire Co., Leitersburg Volunteer Fire Co. and the Washington County Special Operations and Emergency Air units, Hopkins said.

Apartment Building, Residential

Abilene, TX – Eighth-floor apartment cooking fire controlled by sprinkler system

Abilene firefighters responded Saturday to two structure fires, including one in a downtown high-rise building that activated the sprinkler system, according to news releases. 

At about 9:20 p.m., fire crews were called to The Windsor Apartment Homes in the 400 block of Pine Street. A small cooking fire in an eighth-floor apartment had triggered the apartment’s sprinkler system, the release said. 

“Once the fire extinguishment was confirmed, the fire department was able to shut off the sprinkler system to reduce the water damage,” the release said.

Water flowed down the hallway and also damaged nearby apartments, including at least one on the floor below, AFD spokeswoman Elise Roberts said.

Damages are estimated to be $5,000 due to the sprinkler activation, the release said. 

Apartment Building, Residential

Mt. Pleasant, WI – Fire sprinklers stop stove top fire from spreading in apartment; No injuries reported

No one was injured in a Sunday afternoon kitchen fire that aused an estimated $3,300 in damage at the Regency West Apartments in the 2300 block of Loni Lane.

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:

  • Fire sprinklers likely saved tenants and an apartment building from a catastrophic fire loss.
  • Tenants involved in this fire did not have renter’s insurance, which would have helped protect them from the thousands of dollars of financial loss. Renter’s insurance also helps protect tenants from actions of neighbors, fire officials advised.
Apartment Building, Residential

Crescent City, CA – Fourth floor apartment fire knocked down by fire sprinkler

On Thursday, March 26th at 12:47 PM a fire broke out in a fourth-floor apartment at the Surf Apartments located at 108 H Street, Crescent City. Originally dispatched as a fire alarm sounding at the location, the response was quickly upgraded to a structure fire when dispatch advised there was smoke in an apartment on the fourth floor, and occupants were beginning to evacuate. On fire department arrival light smoke was seen coming from an apartment on the Front Street side of the building and the fire alarm system was sounding. There were some occupants already on the street in front of the building.

Crews entered the building for fire attack and search and encountered a number of residents in the hallways and still inside their rooms. The ladder truck was positioned with the ladder to the fire apartment. The fire attack crew found the apartment full of smoke, but the fire had been extinguished by one sprinkler head that activated in the bedroom where the fire had burned a laundry basket of clothing and began to burn the mattress next to it. Search efforts continued as additional occupants were removed or sheltered in place on lower floors away from the fire location. The sprinkler system was shut down, smoke was removed from the building, and crews worked to protect property from water damage. The building electrical was also shutoff. Unfortunately, 12 occupants were displaced by the fire and subsequent water damage to apartments next to and below the fire apartment.

Del Norte County Office of Emergency Services assisted with Red Cross to temporarily house the 12 displaced occupants. Property management on scene was coordinating with an electrician to restore power to the undamaged apartments. Cleaning resources were also being brought in for water removal.

In addition to the three engines, one ladder truck, one rescue, and duty officer from Crescent City Fire and Rescue, Pelican Bay State Prison Fire Department and CALFIRE each were requested and responded with an engine. A total of 18 firefighters battled the fire. After investigation of the fire scene, the cause of the fire appears accidental from a dropped cigarette between the bed and laundry basket. Repairing the damage from the fire and sprinkler flow could be as much as $50,000.

“The sprinkler system did its job today at the Surf Apartments by quickly knocking down the fire. Without the fast response of a working automatic fire sprinkler system combined with the fire department response, this situation would have likely been tragic as the mostly elderly occupant population attempted to flee from what could have been a rapidly growing fire.” Bill Gillespie, Fire Chief

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Baton Rouge, LA – Sprinkler system at nursing home controls fire caused by air conditioning unit

The Baton Rouge Fire Department responded to a local nursing home early Saturday morning.

After arriving at the Sterling Place Nursing Home, BRFD says “they were directed to the second floor of the building where a window air condition unit was on fire.”

A sprinkler activated in the room where the air conditioner was on fire and prevented more damage from occurring.

Eight total units, four pumpers and two ladders were required to put the fire out.

The cause of this fire was most likely a bird nest caught in the AC unit.

At the time of the fire, there were 144 people and around 20 workers residing in the nursing home.

According to the Baton Rouge Fire Department, “the second floor where the fire was is vacant, with no one living on that floor.”

That floor did sustain smoke and heavy water damage.

BRPD and EMS assisted the Baton Rouge Fire Department at the scene.

Sterling Place Nursing Home is located at 3888 North Blvd.