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.
Chief Smith and Deputy Chief Sean Wert of the Monmouth Junction Volunteer Fire Department arrived just before 4:30 p.m. to find smoke coming from the building and water running from under the door of one of the commercial building’s suites.
Firefighters entered the building and extinguished a smoldering fire that was being contained by a single sprinkler head. Approximately 25 firefighters responded to the one-alarm fire. The fire was contained to storage inside the single business.
This was the second fire the Monmouth Junction Fire Department responded to in the last month in a commercial building where a single sprinkler head activated to contain a fire. The fires occurred during off hours in both instances, where no employees were working.
“If these buildings had not had activated sprinklers, the fires would have continued to grow and most likely both buildings would have been destroyed. These incidents prove that sprinkler systems save property and lives,” said Chief Smith.
Crews quickly snuffed out a car fire Friday afternoon at a Belgrade hotel.
Witnesses said a car under the portico caught fire at the La Quinta Inn and Suites off Jackrabbit Lane shortly after 3 p.m.
The building’s sprinkler system kicked in protecting the hotel but the fire spread to the hotel van parked under the portico and into the roof.
Officials say there was a hotel evacuation, but no injuries were reported. Bozeman Fire responded with big extension ladder truck along with Central Valley and Hyalite Fire.
The fire remains under investigation at this time.
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.
Maysville Fire Chief Kevin Doyle said MFD was called to the Lowe’s store at about 3:30 p.m., to answer reports of a fire inside the business located on East Maple Leaf Road.
When firefighters arrived they found a rack of lawn furniture cushions in the Lawn and Garden section in flames, he said,
The store’s sprinkler system had already activated to control the fire, Doyle said. Firefighters had the fire out in short order, he said.
“It was out pretty quickly,” he said.
There was no obvious source to have ignited the fire, Doyle said. The merchandise was not newly displayed and had been stocked for some time, he said.
Although there was electrical power source nearby it was not affected or damaged by the fire and remained intact, Doyle said.
No one was injured and the store was shut down for a short time, he said.
Detectives T.C. Rice and Michael Parsons of the Maysville Fire Department are reviewing security video to see who was in the area at the time the fire started, Doyle said.
Anyone with information about the fire is asked to contact Doyle at 606-564-2541 or Parsons at 606-564-9411.
Firefighters were called to a fire at Hardymon Lumber in downtown Maysville on Saturday evening. The fire destroyed the business’s office and showroom but did not spread to areas where lumber was stored. The business was up and running by Monday.
The cause of that fire has officially been listed as undetermined.
As the crew from Truck 1 was arriving on scene, Pennington County 9-1-1 dispatch advised that a caller was reporting an active fire in the kitchen. A full first alarm was called that included additional units from Station 1 as well as Stations 3 and 7.
When Truck 1 was inside, they found that there had been a fire on the stove in the kitchen. The fire had been extinguished by the commercial hood system as well as a single sprinkler head from the fire sprinkler system.
The full first alarm system was canceled while Truck 1 remained on-scene.
The building was occupied at the time of the fire by Rapid City Area Schools personnel that were making and distributing lunches. The Rapid City Community Health Office was also open and operating during the time of the fire. No injuries were reported and occupants safely and quickly evacuated.
The fire was contained to the stove area while smoke was quickly cleared by firefighters who also assisted with the clean-up of water from the sprinkler system, and was determined to be an accident by an investigator from the Rapid City Fire Department.
Boxes being used for lunch distribution by the stove caught fire and were quickly extinguished by the sprinkler and hood systems. The fire shouldn’t negatively impact ongoing lunch distribution.
“The sprinkler system did exactly what it was designed to do”, said Lt. Brian Staton with the Rapid City Fire Department’s Fire and Life Safety Division. “Only the number of heads needed to put the fire out were activated. Instead of dealing with a big fire, we’re squeegeeing up water”.
The Rapid City Fire Department wants to remind everyone that it advocates for fire sprinkler protection, especially with large, public buildings.
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:
Firefighters were sent to the 600 block of East 16th Street, near San Pedro Street, about 4:15 p.m., according to Brian Humphrey of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
The exterior fire was extending into a commercial building, activating the building’s sprinkler system, but fire crews quickly extinguished the blaze before it burned more than a couple of boxes at the unidentified business, he said.
No injuries were reported, and the cause of the fire was under investigation, he said.
Firefighters found smoke in the first floor hallway of the hotel and began an offensive attack. The city said the fire was under control very quickly, thanks in part to the hotel’s automatic sprinkler system that had activated and stopped the fire from spreading.
Other areas of the hotel had some minor smoke and water damage. The city said there are no damage estimates at this time.
All the people in the hotel were able to self-evacuate, and one person was assessed by paramedics on scene but did not need to go to the hospital. There were no other injuries reported.
Police confirmed that the fire was a result of arson.
