Apartment Building, Residential

Fargo, ND – Apartment balcony fire contained by single sprinkler

A sprinkler contained a fire on a second-floor balcony, which firefighters credited with helping to prevent the spread of the fire on Sunday, Sept. 10. Firefighters responded to a call of “smoke and flames coming from inside a second floor apartment” at 4948 47th St. S. When they arrived the firefighters found the fire sprinkler operating.

“Crews checked the apartment and found that the fire was contained to the balcony and there was no one inside,” Battalion Chief Dane Carley said in a statement.  Some vinyl siding was damaged before the sprinkler doused the fire. The initial damage estimate is $2,000. No apartment contents were damaged. The fire remains under investigation.

Apartment Building, Residential

Springfield, OR – Fire in mixed-use apartment building quickly extinguished by sprinkler system

A kitchen fire damaged an apartment building in the heart of downtown Springfield on Friday.  There were no injuries.  Firefighters were dispatched to the Royal Building at Main and Fifth streets shortly after 1 p.m. The building, developed and owned by St. Vincent de Paul of Lane County, has 35 apartments on four upper floors as well as ground-floor retail.  The building’s sprinkler system quickly extinguished the fire in a third-floor apartment, but the water ran down into the lower floors, said Jeff Kronser, battalion chief for Eugene Springfield Fire.

Terry McDonald, St. Vincent de Paul’s executive director, said employees were assessing the damage and working to get tenants back into the building.  It wasn’t immediately clear how many tenants the fire displaced.  Tenant Sharon Quest said another tenant had left the building while food was cooking on a stove. Quest said the tenant returned after firefighters arrived.

“It must have burned pretty good to start a fire,” she said.  One of the ground-floor tenants is the Mezza Luna Pizzeria. Employee Chad Ouellette said some soaked ceiling tiles collapsed because of the water, but otherwise the damage was minimal.  The pizzeria was closing for the day but planned to reopen Saturday, he said.  The fire remained under investigation.

Apartment Building, Residential

Chattanooga, TN – Fire in mechanical room of 10 story apartment building extinguished by sprinkler system

Chattanooga firefighters have evacuated apartment building on West 6th Street, due to a small fire Friday night.  The call came in just before 8:15 p.m. from The 300 apartment building. Fire department spokesman Bruce Garner tells Channel 3, a small fire broke out in the mechanical room on the fifth floor.  Garner says the sprinkler system put out the flames before firefighters arrived at the scene.

Firefighters evacuated residents and thoroughly searched all 10 floors of the building.  Garner says firefighters are working to clean up the water from the sprinkler system.  No one was hurt.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Wilkes-Barre, PA – Sprinkler system helps save lives in nursing home fire; No injuries reported

Dozens of properties in downtown Wilkes-Barre lost power Friday morning, including a long-term care facility where a fire broke out. Fire crews responded to St. Luke’s Villa at 80 E. Northampton St. around 12:20 p.m. for a fire in an elevator shaft around the same time as other downtown properties lost power.  The approximately 100 residents of the mixed-used facility, primarily senior citizens, had been moved away from the fire scene to a different part of the building as the site is operating on emergency power through a generator.

As of 1:30 p.m., Wilkes-Barre Fire Chief Jay Delaney said city officials, utility companies and managers of the non-profit facility were trying to determine if it was safe for the residents to remain. “Right now, we’re in the decision-making process,” Delaney said. “The number one issue is making sure the residents are safe.”

St. Luke’s Villa, which is run by the the Diocese of Scranton, is a 50-bed nursing home, a 45-room personal care facility and a 31-apartment retirement community. Delaney said the it’s unclear if St. Luke’s was the cause of the broader outage or if other power problems in the area led to St. Luke’s fire.

PPL Electric Utilities said 87 customers lost power and they hoped to have service restored by 3 p.m. Delaney said crews were trying to “isolate” St. Luke’s from the electrical grid so power could be restored to everyone else until the building’s issues were resolved. The chief said the fire was extinguished quickly, and the most damage was due to a third-floor sprinkler system causing water to seep down into the floors below.

John Howells, director of long term care facilities for the Diocese of Scranton, said he doubts residents will have to move from the building, but a final decision will be made when power is restored. “State agencies have been notified. At this point, there is no need to evacuate,” he said. “When the power comes back, we have to do a series of checks.”

Most of the sprinkler water pooled on a lobby floor and teams from Serve Pro have already cleaned up most of the mess, he said.

“Things got wet, but it wasn’t flooded,” Howells said.

Crews from the elevator company are at the site waiting for power to be restored, he said.

Howells said residents are doing fine and all have been cleared to return to their rooms.

He credited the staff for great work.

“Everything went the way it was supposed to have gone,” Howells said.

Apartment Building, Residential

Myrtle Beach, SC – Sprinkler system keeps apartment fire from spreading; Fire contained to room of origin

Myrtle Beach Fire Department crews responded to 1075 Mr. Joe White Avenue, the Alliance Inn, Friday morning for the report of an apartment fire, according to Lt. Jon Evans with MBFD.  Evans stated that all occupants were out of the building when crews arrived, and that most of the fire was extinguished by the sprinkler system in the room the fire started in.  The fire did not extend to any further rooms.  The fire is still under investigation at this time, check back with WMBF News for more information.

Other / Not Specified

Falmouth, MA – Fire at marine laboratory held in check by automatic sprinkler system

Falmouth Fire/Rescue reports that at approximately 9 AM Thursday morning, they responded to the Marine Resource Center, part of Marine Biological Laboratories at 125 Water Street in Woods Hole. Shortly after arrival, Engine 20 reported smoke showing from the rear of the building. A full first alarm was dispatched, bringing Engine 25 and Ladder 26 to the scene. Crews connected to the sprinkler system and advanced an attack line that they then connected to the standpipe in the stairwell. The crew made entrance to the second floor hallway and found a heavy smoke condition with a fire in a lab that was being held in check by the sprinkler system. The crew fully extinguished the fire and began ventilating the building. Firefighters remained on scene for about 90 minutes. There were no injuries, and the fire is believed to be accidental. Mutual aid from Joint Base Cape Cod and Mashpee Fire covered the Falmouth stations during the incident.

Storage / Warehouse, Warehouse

Sandwich, IL – Storage fire at molding business distribution center held in check by sprinkler system

The Sandwich Fire Department extinguished a blaze at the Plano Molding Company on Thursday.  Fire officials were dispatched to the Plano Molding Company, which is located at 500 Duvick Ave. at approximately 11:24 a.m. for an activated fire alarm. While officials were enroute to the scene, they were updated from 911 calls that there was a fire within the building at 510 Duvick Ave., which is the Plano Molding distribution warehouse. Fire units found that the sprinkler system was active, and that there was a fire in the stack of pallets inside the building.

All occupants of the building evacuated safely, and there were no injuries reported.  The sprinkler system in the building kept the fire smoldering until fire crews were able to fully extinguish the fire. Fire crews extinguished the fire in approximately 20 minutes. Crews worked to clear the smoke out of the building and remove the burnt material outside.  Officials from the Sandwich Fire Department were assisted on scene by Little-Rock Fox, Bristol-Kendall, Newark and Somonauk Fire.  The Sandwich Fire Station was covered with help from the Oswego and Big Rock Fire Departments.

Other Business

New Bedford, MA – Damage from arson fire at laundry business limited by sprinkler system

State and New Bedford fire officials are investigating another suspicious, early-morning fire that damaged a laundry building Thursday in the city’s near North End, officials said.  The fire at Purity Services Laundry, 405 Myrtle St., was in a garage loading area that is inside the building, according to Fire Chief Michael Gomes.

“It was not accidental,” the chief said of the fire.  Damage from the blaze was minimized due to the activation of the company’s sprinkler system, according to Gomes and Jennifer Mieth, a spokeswoman for the state Fire Marshal’s office. Gomes said the Fire Department learned of the fire when the sprinkler system was activated.

Firefighters were able to extinguish the fire within 20 minutes of their arrival. According to the New Bedford Police Department log, the fire occurred at 3:07 a.m. Thursday.  Items held in the storage area suffered fire damage and there was smoke damage throughout the building, Gomes said.

Officials with Purity Services Laundry were not available for comments Friday morning.

Investigators said they have not determined whether Thursday’s fire is related to numerous early-morning fires in the city’s near North End during July and August.

Chief Gomes said this fire is under investigation by the New Bedford Fire and Police Departments and the state Fire Marshal’s office.

Anyone with information can call the state’s arson hotline, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at 1-800-682-9229, Mieth said. All calls are confidential.

Other - Retail, Retail

Palo Alto, CA – Suspicious fire at furniture store minimized with help from sprinkler system

Palo Alto firefighters doused what appeared to be a “suspicious” fire at the rear of a furniture store to the Town & Country Village this morning, fire officials said.  Crews reported to the blaze at the rear of Cisco Home at 855 El Camino Real shortly after 7 a.m., Deputy Fire Chief Catherine Capriles said.

The fire “appears to be suspicious,” according to Battalion Chief Chris Woodard. An initial report indicated the fire was inside CVS Pharmacy, which is adjacent to Cisco, but Capriles later clarified that it was inside a storage room at the furniture store.

Crews had to force their way inside the store that was locked up at the time, and discovered the blaze in a storage room.  A sprinkler system was activated once they arrived and extinguished the fire, Capriles said.  The incident was upgraded to a second-alarm response that brought additional units to the scene, but crews later determined the fire was under control.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.  Access to the shopping center was limited while crews work to extinguish the fire, police said in a tweet.  At about 8:40 a.m., crews were cleaning up in the area where traffic was “no longer significantly impacted,” police tweeted.  Crews left the scene around 9 a.m., Capriles said.

Bob Wenzlau was in the area around 9 a.m. and said there appeared to be no apparent structural damage from the fire, which appeared to damage property at Cisco Home.  A damage estimate for the fire wasn’t available this morning.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Mount Pleasant, WI – Fire in attic of assisted living facility controlled by sprinkler system

Fire investigators are looking into a fire Thursday that damaged an assisted-living facility. The emergency call went out at 3:30 p.m. at Racine Commons, 8500 Corporate Drive, just north of Highway 20, and escalated to a second alarm for equipment and personnel. South Shore Fire Battalion Chief John Radewan said as soon as firefighters got to the scene they saw smoke and flames coming from the northeast corner of the H-shaped housing complex, which is west of Stuart Road and east of 90th Street.

“I saw heavy fire,” Radewan said. Mount Pleasant police officers already on the scene helped bystanders get all the residents out of the building without injury.  Firefighters attacked the flames with streams from a ladder truck and with hoses from personnel on the ground.  “The fire came from the back of the building and extended into the peak of the building, getting into the attic itself,” Radewan said. “We opened all that up and knocked it down.”

The sprinkler system kept the fire from spreading and firefighters were able to put it out within 20 minutes without injuries to the firefighters, according to Radewan. South Shore Battalion Chief Jon Keiser, who also worked the fire scene, said the placement of the sprinkler system inside the attic prevented damage and the fire could have extended without the presence of sprinklers.

“The interior rooms were only damaged by water,” Keiser said. “The fire damage was limited to the exterior of the building and the two roof spaces. It’s a very clear picture of why you put sprinklers in attics. We would have been here for 12 hours if it would have run into the attic.”

A trash container inside a garbage area appeared to be damaged by the fire, but Radewan declined to comment Thursday on any potential cause or origin of the fire. The fire is under investigation at this time,” Radewan said. Fire investigators started taking pictures and conducting their investigation of the fire within an hour of the fire being out.  Caledonia firefighters assisted at the scene.

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