Tag Archives: Afternoon (12pm-6pm)

Manufacturing, Manufacturing Plant

York, PA – Machine fire at metal component manufacturer controlled by sprinkler system

Smoke puffed out of the Gamlet Incorporated building on Tuesday after a machine caught on fire at the business.  York City Assistant Fire Chief Chad Deardorff said the sprinkler system in the building controlled the fire.  Deardorff said the cause of and damage from the fire has not yet been determined.  No inuries were reported.

Apartment Building, Residential

St. Catharines, ON, Canada – Sprinklers activate during fire at 7-story apartment building

Firefighters evacuated the seven-floor apartment building at 5 Louis Ave. Tuesday after a blaze broke out on the fifth floor.

About 200 residents were forced from their homes for about six hours until the building was considered safe to re-enter.

“There was a lot of smoke that migrated throughout the building — so it had to be ventilated,” Deputy Fire Chief Larry Jones said. “We had to make sure all the units were safe.

“We went floor by floor with our air monitoring equipment and kept the fans going until we had zero readings.”

The Salvation Army and Red Cross provided the residents with sandwiches and coffee. Two buses from the City of St. Catharines were used as shelter. The Humane Society also attended, to assist with the pets of the residents.

Some tenants from the fifth floor will have to wait to re-occupy their units, Jones said. The Red Cross is helping them.

“Once we are finished our investigation, cleanup will commence,” Jones said. “The cleanup will focus on getting the displaced tenants back first. I can’t imagine it will be too long. There was some water damage to the floors. We had to isolate part of the sprinkler system so that will have to be repaired. They will have to deodorize and clean the walls. The units — for the most part — are fine.

Manufacturing, Paper Mill / Saw Mill

Lincoln, ME – Sprinkler system helps save wood mill from extensive damage

A sprinkler system helped save a Main Street wood mill from extensive damage in a nagging fire that took about three hours to contain on Tuesday.

No injuries were reported, firefighters said.

Passers-by reported the fire at about 4:20 p.m. at LMJ Enterprises, 431 Main St., police said. The mill’s screening equipment and some other machinery at the east end of the main building were destroyed, Lincoln fire Capt. Bob Bean said.

The mill, which makes wood shavings for animal bedding, would have taken heavy damage had the flames been carried by the mill’s conveyer belts from the screening equipment into the mill’s attic area, Bean said.

“The fire did not get into the mill,” Bean said Tuesday. “The sprinkler system kicked in, and that bought us enough time to get a handle on it.”

Residence Hall/Dormitory, Residential

Riverside, CA – Sprinklers hold flames in check at UC Riverside dormitory

A trash compactor blaze triggered fire sprinklers that held the flames in check at a UC Riverside dormitory.

The sprinkler alarm went off at 3:39 p.m. Saturday, April 25, at Lothian Residence Hall, 500 West Big Springs Road.

When firefighters arrived, smoke was billowing from the basement and first floor, and occupants were evacuating, Battalion Chief Thomas Jay said in a written statement.

Crews found the fire in a basement trash compactor.

Fire sprinklers held the blaze in check, and the crews of two fire engines and two ladder trucks soon put out the flames.

Manufacturing, Paper Mill / Saw Mill

Spokane, WA – Fire at paper manufacturer put out with help from sprinkler system

What could have turned into a raging inferno was instead a smoldering mess thanks to the sprinkler system installed at Inland Empire Paper.

Fire crews responded to the paper mill on Argonne just after 2:30 p.m. on April 15 for a fire in the recycling building. Employees were unloading giant bundles of recycled materials that were held together with metal bands, said Spokane Valley Fire Department spokeswoman Melanie Rose.

The metal of one of the bands scraped across the floor, got hot and ignited the bundled paper, Rose said. Crews were able to put out the fire quickly with help from the sprinkler system. The quick response was due in part to the department’s pre-incident planning, Rose said. “We already knew what was in there,” she said.

Crews from Spokane County Fire District 8 assisted at the fire and crews from Spokane County Fire District 9 staffed several Valley Fire stations while crews were at the paper mill.  Inland Empire Paper is owned by Cowles Co., which also owns The Spokesman-Review.

Other / Not Specified, Other Business

Chattanooga, TN – Sprinkler system helps contain fire at non-profit center for disabled individuals

Clean up continues at the Orange Grove Center after a small fire Wednesday afternoon left the facility with smoke and water damage.  The fire happened around 2 p.m. when employees were working to install a new conveyor belt in the Materials Recovery Facility.  Fire officials believe sparks from the torch used to install it started the fire. 

The fire damage was only around the conveyor belt, but fire officials say it will take some time for Orange Grove to clean up after the smoke damage, and water from the sprinkler system. There were no injuries.

The fire happened around 2 p.m. when employees were working to install a new conveyor belt in the Materials Recovery Facility. Fire officials believe sparks from the torch used to install it started the fire.  The Orange Grove Center is a private non-profit organization, serving adults and children with intellectual disabilities. Nearly 225 people were evacuated from the Orange Grove Center, after a conveyor belt caught fire.

“You could see the belt was on fire itself and the material on it was on fire,” said Bruce Garner, Public Information Officer for the Chattanooga Fire Department. “This involved a lot of combustibles with petroleum based products; computers, plastics, things like that. They burn hot and put out a lot of smoke. It’s like burning a tire.”

 

Apartment Building, Residential

New Braunfels, TX – Sprinklers assist in extinguishing apartment blaze; No injuries reported

New Braunfels Firefighters were called out to the Ranch at the Guadalupe at 1355 Ranch Parkway for a fire last Tuesday afternoon. Crews were dispatched at 3pm. for a fire alarm. When they arrived on scene, officials say there was smoke showing from a 3rd floor apartment, but that a fire-sprinkler system had activated. A microwave is being blamed for starting the fire in the kitchen. Fire crews finished extinguishing the blaze, and called the fire under control at 3:21pm..

Manufacturing, Other - Manufacturing

Woodstock, ON, Canada – Fire in laser cutter at machining business contained with help from sprinklers

The Woodstock Fire Department said they responded to a structure fire at Harvan Engineering Ltd. Thursday at around 5 p.m.  When they arrived, fire crews found that staff had been evacuated and the sprinkler systems had been activated, allowing firefighters to extinguish the fire.

The cause of the fire was determined to be the result of a spark from the cutting process melting an oxygen supply line, igniting the oxygen supply and spreading to the machine housing. “This is an excellent example of a building’s life-safety systems minimizing the spread of a fire,” said Woodstock fire’s Deputy Fire Chief Jason Whiteley. “A working and properly maintained sprinkler system prevented the fire from leaving the piece of equipment and potentially destroying the facility.”

The Woodstock Fire Department said they would like to remind everyone that all fire and life-safety equipment should be checked monthly and have annual maintenance performed to ensure it will operate when needed.

Other - Residential, Residential

Framingham, MA – Cooking fire in rooming house contained by single sprinkler

Damage from a fire in a 12-unit rooming house in Framingham Wednesday was minimized due to sprinklers, according to the State Fire Marshal’s Office and the Framingham Fire Chief.

A cooking fire occurred in a 12-unit rooming house at 260 Union Avenue in Framingham, just after 4 p.m. on Wednesday, April 15. Fortunately, the building is equipped with residential sprinklers and a single sprinkler head contained the fire, said Framingham Fire Chief Gary Daughtery. “Fire sprinklers minimized the damage to the building, used less water to control the fire than we would have, and minimized the time these residents were displaced from their home,” said Daughtery.

The resident panicked and instead of putting a lid on the pan tried to put the grease fire out with water, which quickly spread the fire onto the counter and cabinets, according to the state’s fire marshal’s office. The 12 occupants were temporarily displaced while, repairs were made to the kitchen and will be moving back home today, April 16, said a release from the state fire marshal’s office.  Damage was confined to a small area around the stove and no one was injured in the fire.

“Residential fire sprinklers are the future of fire,“ said Daughtery. “They keep fires smaller and cooler so they are less dangerous for both the people inside the home and responding firefighters.”

Apartment Building, Residential

Roanoke, VA – Sprinkler helps contain afternoon apartment fire

One person has been displaced following an apartment building fire Wednesday afternoon in Roanoke County.

Firefighters arrived around 1:30 p.m. to a six-story apartment building in the 5300 block of Hawthorne Road in Hollins, said Fire & Rescue spokeswoman Jennifer Conley Sexton.

An overhead sprinkler system extinguished most of the fire in a kitchen on the fourth floor before crews from North County, Hollins and Roanoke arrived, Sexton said.