Category Archives: Residential

Apartment Building, Residential

McKinney, TX – Apartment grease fire controlled by fire sprinklers; No injuries reported

A McKinney resident cooked up more than she was hungry for after grease splashed from a frying pan, sparking a fire in her kitchen.

But two fire sprinkler heads activated and quickly extinguished the flames, eliminating a potential “disaster,” according to the McKinney Fire Department.

“Cooking fires are the number one cause of home fires and home injuries,” said Merit Ossian, McKinney Fire Dept. Public Information Officer. “The biggest problem is unattended cooking. If you have to step away from the stove, turn off the heat first.”

The structure fire happened at the Treymore of McKinney apartments at 901 S. Wilson Creek.

No one was injured and damage was limited to the area around the stove.

  • Keep a lid nearby when you’re cooking to smother small grease fires.
  • Smother the fire by sliding the lid over the pan and turn off the heat. Leave the pan covered until it is completely cooled.
  • For an oven fire, turn off the heat and keep the door closed.
Apartment Building, Residential

Palatine, IL – Fire sprinklers put out apartment bathroom fire; No injuries reported

No injuries resulted from a small fire early Saturday in an apartment building on the 1100 block of North Sterling Avenue in Palatine, officials said. Firefighters called to the building at 12:40 a.m. found moderate smoke and two sprinkler heads activated in a bathroom, which extinguished the flames. The fire damage was limited to the bathroom in the unit, with moderate water damage to the apartment below.

Officials said the fire remained under investigation Monday. A damage estimate was not yet available.

Apartment Building, Residential

Virginia Beach, VA – Fire contained to apartment balcony thanks to sprinkler system

Virginia Beach Firefighters responded to a commercial fire in the 4700 block of Alicia Drive Sunday morning.

Dispatchers received the call around 11:30 a.m.

Units arrived on the scene to smoke on the 4th floor. The fire was contained to the balcony by the sprinkler system.

Officials say the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Residence Hall/Dormitory, Residential

Louisville, KY – Sprinkler system contains fire after man sets trash can in dorm at U of L on fire

 A man was arrested Saturday after police said he started a fire inside a University of Louisville dormitory bathroom. 

According to an arrest report, police took Antonio Spuria, 18, into custody after witnesses and evidence pointed to him setting a 55-gallon garbage can on fire around 2 a.m. Saturday inside the men’s restroom on the second floor of Miller Hall Dormitory, located on U of L’s Belknap Campus. 

Multiple students were inside the dorm at the time of the fire, and the building had to be evacuated for several hours while crews with the Louisville Fire Department cleaned up and repaired its sprinkler system, according to Spuria’s arrest report. 

Spuria was booked at Louisville Metro Corrections around 2:30 p.m. Saturday and was charged with first-degree arson and wanton endangerment, according to his arrest report. 

Other - Residential, Residential

Macon, GA – Sprinkler system helps contain fire at Home for Children and Youth; No injuries reported

The Methodist Home for Children and Youth says they’re thankful after Macon-Bibb firefighters put out fire near one of their buildings Saturday night.

CEO of the home, Alison Evans, says she got a call around 6:45 p.m. that a golf cart parked under a breezeway to an administration building had caught fire. 

The golf cart was battery powered, and something in it malfunctioned, according to the Macon-Bibb Fire Department.

The department says there was no major damage to the breezeway itself other than soot buildup and some water damage inside the building due to a sprinkler. 

Evans says the fire was not near any of their children’s homes, and there were no injuries. The home is operating as normal. 

They lost a golf cart, but Evans says she’s happy with the fire department’s response. 

The Methodist Home for Children and Youth is located off Pierce Avenue.

Residence Hall/Dormitory, Residential

Athens, GA – Fire contained to single dorm room thanks to fire sprinkler system; No injuries reported

While a fire damaged one room at a University of Georgia student dormitory over the weekend, the ensuing water damage means many other students were affected.

As a result, 54 students have been temporarily displaced from Myers Hall, which is off South Lumpkin Street on UGA’s campus, university spokesman Greg Trevor told AJC.com.

The fire took place early Sunday morning and was isolated to a single room, triggering the sprinkler in that room, Trevor said in an emailed statement. 

The Athens-Clarke County Fire Department responded and were able to quickly extinguish the fire. No one was injured, and students were able to reenter the building later that morning.

However, the water damage affected 54 students, the statement said. The university is providing temporary housing for those affected while the cleanup is completed. The places where those students will be housed was not provided.

The damages are expected to be repaired by Monday, allowing those students to move back into the dorm.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation. AJC.com has reached out to the fire department for more information.

Apartment Building, Residential

Haverhill, MA – Sprinkler system contains fire to bedroom after item is left too close to electric heat register; No injuries reported

The Friday night blaze that displaced 14 residents was caused by items left too close to a condo unit’s electric heat register, fire Chief William Laliberty said Tuesday.

The single-alarm fire at the brick Merrimack Place apartment building behind the A-1 Deli was reported by phone around 6:30 p.m. and firefighters had the blaze under control within a half-hour. All residents were evacuated and no injuries were reported.

According to Laliberty, the building’s sprinkler system activated and contained the fire to the bedroom. While smoke from the fire made its way to the adjacent Landmark Building, firefighters were able to quickly remove the smoke using fans, the chief said.

Apartment Building, Residential

West Dundee, IL -Apartment balcony fire kept in check by fire sprinkler system

An automatic sprinkler system kept a fire on the balcony of a West Dundee apartment from spreading into the building early Friday morning, officials said.

A water gong alarm at 3:08 a.m. woke residents of a second-floor unit on the 3100 block of Canterfield Parkway East, and they soon realized the furniture on their balcony was on fire, according to a news release from the village.

All residents of the building had evacuated by the time firefighters arrived. Firefighters extinguished the blaze, which authorities believe was caused by careless use of smoking materials, within five minutes, the news release said.

Apartment Building, Residential

Beverly, MA – Fire sprinklers keep apartment kitchen fire from spreading; No injuries reported

Kim Douglas was at work on Wednesday night when she got a frantic phone call from her mother around midnight.

“She said, ‘The house is on fire,'” Douglas said.

Fortunately, Douglas’ 74-year-old mother and the rest of the residents of the seven-story Station 101 apartment building on Rantoul Street escaped unharmed in what Beverly Fire Department officials said could have turned into a much worse situation.

A fire that started in the kitchen of a fourth-floor apartment forced the evacuation of residents and caused about 30 of them to have to find another place to stay. A man in the apartment where the fire started was found unresponsive by firefighters in a smoke-filled bedroom, but he became alert when firefighters quickly got him outside and was seemingly uninjured, fire officials said.

Beverly fire Capt. Jeff Sirois said fire sprinklers proved effective in limiting the spread of the flames, although there was a “substantial” amount of smoke and water damage from the fourth floor to the first floor.

“In the grand scheme of things it could’ve been a lot worse if the building wasn’t sprinklered,” Sirois said.

Sirois said the cause of the fire is under investigation but might have been “cooking related.”

Firefighters were called to the building at 101 Rantoul St. at 11:45 p.m. and arrived to find the fourth-floor hallway filled with smoke from a kitchen fire in one of the apartments. Crews worked to fully extinguish the fire, which officials said had been held at bay by sprinklers.

Once the fire was out, crews ventilated the smoke and pulled ceiling tiles damaged by water on the first three floors. The Beverly Fire Department posted a fire watch overnight until the alarm system could be reactivated.

Station 101, formerly known as The Millery, has been an apartment building for decades. It has 99 one- and two-bedroom apartments and is valued at more than $10 million, according to city records. It is unclear how many people live there. Officials from Peabody Properties, which manages the building, did not return phone calls.

Douglas, 48, praised firefighters as well as the management company and the American Red Cross for their response to the fire. Douglas said the Red Cross gave residents gift cards for breakfast and hotel rooms. She and her mother spent Wednesday night in a hotel and were expected to stay one more night before returning to their apartment on Friday.

“Everybody was right on top of everything,” Douglas said.

Douglas said her apartment, which is two floors below the apartment where the fire started, had very little damage, other than wet furniture and rugs. She said there was up to two inches of water on the floor in the hallways below the fourth floor.

“For me, my mom got out,” she said. “Everything else is material stuff.”