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Nashua, NH – Truck fire inside warehouse held in check by sprinkler system

Firefighters quickly extinguished a truck fire Monday night inside a three-story warehouse on Bridge Street, which houses a truck repair shop and kitchen cabinet outlet. The building’s sprinkler system kept the fire in check.

Fire crews arrived just after 10:30 PM to find a fire in the engine compartment of a plow truck parked in the rear garage area. Firefighters forced their way through double overhead doors to put out the fire. Some of the firefighting operations were delayed as crews encountered broken hydrants due to plow operations and a buried water shut off, fire officials said.

Apartment Building, Residential, Residential High Rise

Columbus, OH – Kitchen fire on 9th floor of high-rise apartment building put out by sprinkler system

The fire happened around 5 a.m. in the Skyview Towers on Sawyer Boulevard, just south of I-670. According to the fire chief, the blaze started on the 9th floor, where a stovetop caught fire. The building’s sprinkler system activated and effectively put out the flames. All evacuated residents are now safe and back inside.

Manufacturing

Marlborough, MA – Sprinklers limit spread of machinery fire; Business spared from more significant damage

Shortly before 8 p.m., a rolling machine, which turns flat cardboard into boxes, caught fire. The building’s sprinkler system prevented the fire from spreading to other machines or sections of the warehouse, said Fire Capt. Bill Pappas.

 Fire crews were able to extinguish the blaze in about 15 minutes, said Pappas. “It was a small fire,” he said. Pappas is unsure what sparked the fire in the machine and said crews are investigating. A few employees were inside the building at the time of the blaze and were evacuated. There were allowed to return inside about an hour after the fire was extinguished. No one was injured, said Pappas.

Other Business

Lexington, KY – Electrical fire in parking garage activates sprinkler system; No injuries or structural damage reported

The government center at 200 East Main Street in downtown Lexington was closed Monday because of an electrical fire late Sunday night in an adjoining parking garage. The parking garage sprinkler system, which was triggered by the fire, helped to contain the blaze which blaze broke out about 11:30 p.m. Sunday in some wiring inside the parking garage.

Firefighters had to turn off electricity in the parking garage, which also caused parts of the government center to lose power, city officials said. With the government building closed, some city employees will not work Monday, said Susan Straub, Mayor Jim Gray’s spokeswoman. The garage is between the Kentucky Theatre and the government building.

Initial indications suggest that the parking garage sustained no structural damage, Straub said. The cause remains unknown, Straub said. Earlier Monday, officials said electrical current arced, and some insulation caught fire. The fire was quickly put out once electrical power in the garage was turned off, fire officials said.

Apartment Building, Residential

Syracuse, NY – Sprinkler system helps contain off-campus apartment fire at Syracuse University

A camp stove fire in an apartment on the corner of Euclid and Livingston avenues set off the sprinkler system in the apartment Sunday night. 

A senior in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications who asked not to be identified by name said he was experimenting with a new camp stove in preparation for a camping trip during Spring Break when the flame of the stove escalated beyond its intended height, setting off the sprinkler system. The fire, located in an apartment building at 320 Euclid Ave., was reported just after 9 p.m. Sunday night. The Syracuse Fire Department left the scene just before 9:50 p.m.

The student, who lives on the third floor of the apartment building, said nothing was burnt. He said that when he saw the flame rise, he went to the bathroom sink and extinguished the flame, but the sprinkler system went off.

Syracuse Fire Department District Chief Robert Whitehead said the sprinkler system did exactly what it was supposed to. There was still water in some light fixtures and some electricity was shut off in the building, but that “everything was handled,” he said.

A National Grid van came to the scene around 9:30 p.m. and remained at the scene past 10 p.m.  Chelcie Pellegrino, a senior communication and rhetorical studies major who lives in the apartment building, said she was inside when the fire started, but said she did not hear an alarm. Pellegrino said she heard fire trucks come to the scene and heard people running up the stairs of the building. She added that if she was not able to stay in her apartment tonight, she had friends who lived on Livingston.

Primary / Secondary School, School / University

Lebanon, OH – Sprinkler activates, extinguishes fire at high school

At 6:51 a.m., Lebanon firefighters were called to the high school, 1916 Drake Road, on reports of a fire in the kitchen, said Capt. Steve Oughterson. A 17-year-old girl was taken to Bethesda Medical Center at Arrow Springs in Lebanon and was released within an hour, said Lebanon Fire Chief Perry Gerome.

The fire happened inside a small appliance in the kitchen as a result of a cooking accident. A sprinkler was activated and the fire was extinguished before crews arrived, the chief said. Gerome said the fire was ruled accidental and caused about $200 in damages.

School officials and the Warren County Health Department were notified and responded to assess the situation, according to Gerome. The small fire caused one event to be canceled and another postponed at the high school until all systems could be reset and placed back in service.

Apartment Building, Residential

Gainesville, FL – Fire at off-campus apartment building extinguished with help from sprinkler system

A fire at southwest Gainesville apartment complex that began under a television was extinguished Saturday afternoon before it had spread to other areas, reported Gainesville Fire Rescue.  Acting Chief Don Campbell credited the sprinkler system and the quick response of firefighters in keeping the fire in check.

The fire was reported about 12:10 p.m. at Campus Club Apartments at 3700 SW 40th Blvd., according to a GFR press release.   Firefighters arrived to find smoke coming from an apartment and forced entry into it. They found that two sprinkler heads had activated.  A small fire was in the entertainment center under the TV.

Firefighters finished extinguishing the fire. No one was home at the time.   “This fire would have definitely been bigger, with the potential for extension into the rest of the building,” Chief Campbell said in the release.

Other Business

Bend, OR – Sprinkler system keeps fire at welding shop from spreading

A fire in a southeast Bend industrial park Thursday night caused $30,000 damage to a welding shop, but likely would have been far more severe and spread to adjoining businesses if a sprinkler system and fire alarm hadn’t kicked in, officials said. 

Firefighters responded around 9:40 p.m. to a fire alarm sounding at Wilson Warehouses, a multi-tenant industrial complex at 1310 SE Armour Road, said Deputy Fire Marshal Cindy Kettering.  They arrived to find the fire in a welding shop, confined to a single tenant in Suites 13 and 14 of the building. Losses were estimated at $15,000 to the building and $15,000 to the contents.

The fire was found to be accidental in nature, Kettering said later Friday, but an exact cause could not be determined.  The fire official said damage to the business “would have been far more severe were it not for the fact that the building is equipped with a full fire sprinkler system,” which “held the fire in check until fire crews arrived” and finished putting it out.

The sprinkler head activation also triggered the fire alarm, leading to a quicker dispatch of crews, Kettering said, noting that having occurred at night, it could have been “a considerable amount of time before the fire was discovered.”

“Without a doubt, working fire sprinkler systems and fire alarm systems saved this business,” she said.

Other Business

Clinton, MO – Sprinklers contain fire at laundry business to area of origin

Apartment Building, Residential

Madison, WI – Cooking fire in apartment building put out by sprinkler system

The Madison Fire Department credits sprinklers with putting out a cooking fire in an apartment on West Mifflin Street.  Firefighters were called to the 500 block of W. Mifflin just before 3 p.m. Friday. They say someone in a third floor apartment was cooking when oil in a pan ignited. The flames set off a sprinkler head in the kitchen. The fire department says there was minimal smoke damage from the fire, but some water did flow into lower floors.  Seventeen people in the apartment building are safe.  The fire department says there’s no word on when residents would be able to get back into their apartments, but all of them were able to arrange a place to stay overnight.

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