Tag Archives: Alaska

College/University (on campus), School / University

Dillingham, AK – Sprinkler system credited with containing fire at University of Alaska-Fairbanks

An early morning alarm called Dillingham’s Volunteer Fire Department to the UAF Bristol Bay Applied Sciences Building Thursday. The building, across the street from the main campus, is known by most as the Old Napa Building.  Fire Chief Norman Heyano credited the sprinkler system with containing the fire, which crews helped extinguish. He said there was light water and smoke damage.  The fire appeared to have been caused by one of two boilers in a utility room. Volunteer firefighters were off the scene a little past 6:00 a.m. Maintenance crews were working to repair damage later in the day, and campus staff appeared to be back to work as usual Thursday.

 

 

Grocery Store / Super Center, Retail

Dillingham, AK – Arson fire at grocery market knocked down by sprinkler system

An automatic sprinkler system kept early morning fires set inside the N&N Market down, but not out, and the Dillingham Volunteer Fire Department was called to the scene before 8:00 a.m.

“When we made entry, the building was full of smoke, pretty heavy smoke,” said Assistant Fire Chief Malcolm Wright. “There were fires in several different places, and they’d been knocked down by the sprinkler system. The sprinklers did their job, but there was still a lot of smoke, and [we] had to overhaul the materials that had burned.”

Wright said there appeared to be two spots fires were started in the store. One was back in the clothing section near the footwear, and another was where bulk paper towels are sold on an aisle end cap, next to the produce section and the freezers. Those were areas firefighters focused on pulling apart materials to stamp out the fire.

Wright, a veteran firefighter, had no doubt the fires had been set intentionally. “Yeah, there is no way I could waffle on that. But I want to leave it to police to say more when they’re ready,” he said.

As to the extent of the damage, Wright said it was “pretty heavy” inside, but credited the sprinklers with preventing the fire from spreading further. “There was a bunch of stuff [damaged] on the shelves, some shelving, some lights, but probably much more water damage I would think. Took us a while to get the sprinklers turned back off,” he said.

Two Dillingham police officers were inside collecting evidence immediately after the firefighters cleared the building. Chief Dan Pasquariello could not be reached for comment Sunday morning.

A witness at the scene, who asked not to be named, told police that noises were heard and the power was out at N&N around 3:30 a.m., and not long after a vehicle sped quickly from behind the store and drove a ways down the road before turning its lights on. Other store employees at the scene said the perpetrator or perpetrators had broken a window in the rear of the building to gain entrance.

No injuries were reported. The N&N Market was closed for business Sunday.

There are city cameras around the port entrance, and in the past N&N Market has operated cameras in the store which have helped lead to the arrest of other burglars. So far Dillingham Police have not said what evidence was collected, what if anything was stolen, or if they are looking for any suspects.

The volunteer crash rescue squad also responded to a vehicle accident north on Lake Road earlier in the morning, and the fire department was pulled away from the scene of the N&N fire after a report of a fire in HUD housing was called in. That turned out to be a false alarm; smoke from fireworks shot into the woodline to scare off a bear had been mistaken for a fire.

Update, 12:45 p.m.: Dillingham Police Chief Dan Pasquariello issued a press release, confirming an arson and burglary investigation is underway, though no suspects have been named. “Investigation revealed that person(s) had broken into the building, stole numerous items from the store, and deliberately set the store on fire,” he wrote.

Pasquariello said the ATM had been targeted, but did not want to comment on other items stolen. He did not say how many people had been involved, or if the Department has suspects in mind. The chief said the police are in the early stages of their investigation, and has asked anyone with information regarding burglary and arson at N&N early Sunday morning to contact DPD at 842-5354.

Food Processing, Manufacturing

Unalaska, AK – Sprinkler system puts out fire caused by explosion at seafood processing plant

A Dutch Harbor seafood processing plant was severely damaged by an explosion Monday evening a public safety official said was likely caused by the ignition of fine fish-meal dust, though the incident remained under investigation Wednesday.

Mike Holman, director of Unalaska’s Department of Public Safety, said the blast — first reported by public radio station KUCB — occurred inside the Westward Seafoods plant on Captains Bay Road at about 6:45 p.m. Monday. Thirteen members of the department responded.

There were employees inside the building at the time of the explosion, but no injuries were reported. Westward Seafoods President Mark Johanson confirmed employees were in the facility, which he described as mostly “one large open space,” but were thankfully uninjured.

The blast likely occurred when an undetermined ignition source detonated dust from the production of fish meal, often used as feed for other fish, Holman said.

Johanson said the exact cause of the blast was still undetermined, though fish-meal dust was among the possible culprits. He declined to mention other possible causes.

“I don’t want to speculate at this point,” Johanson said. “We’ll do our investigation and obviously we’ll learn from it.”

Johanson said the fish-meal plant was closed for the time being, due to the extent of the damage.

“There’s quite a bit of damage inside the building — some of the pipes erupted, and one of the doors was blown off its hinges into a container,” Holman said.

Holman said no foul play is currently suspected in the blast, which is also being investigated by the state fire marshal. The plant’s sprinkler system extinguished the resulting fire before crews arrived but contributed to damage estimates well beyond the $100,000 first reported after the fire.

“It sounds like the sprinklers, when they went off, they dumped a lot of water on all the electrical equipment,” Holman said.

Johanson said one pollock season was wrapping up and the fish-meal plant isn’t needed in any current fishery openings. The company was optimistic the plant will be fully operational in time for another pollock season in January, he said.

Holman said he has seen two fish-meal dust explosions at Dutch Harbor plants during his 21 years with the department, but those blasts hadn’t been as costly as the one Monday.

“I don’t think it has caused as much damage as this one,” Holman said. “This was a little bit bigger.”

Other - Retail, Retail

Fairbanks, AK – Fire at Michaels craft store suppressed by sprinkler system

If you drove by the Michaels arts and crafts store in the Bentley Mall this (Tue) morning, not much looked out of the ordinary.  But if you tried to go in, you found the store closed, with a sign on the door saying there had been a fire in the business.

Fairbanks Firefighters got the call at 6-30 Monday evening, and arrived to find heavy smoke coming from the building, and a fire at the end of one of the aisles.  The origin and cause of the fire are currently under investigation by the Fairbanks Fire Marshals.

Kyle Green, FFD Deputy Fire Marshal, told us “We arrived on scene to find the building full of smoke. The store and the mall were evacuated. Crews made entry and found a fire in the store that was being suppressed by the sprinkler system pretty well. We had to finish extinguishing it. We did so and then we spent quite a bit of time ejecting smoke from the building and mitigating further damage. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation. Michaels is busy right now getting in touch with their folks to come up and assess what we’re looking at for damage.”

 

Hotel / Motel, Hotel / Restaurant

Unalaska, AK – Laundry fire at Grand Aleutian Hotel extinguished with help from sprinkler system

The Unalaska Department of Public Safety responded to a fire in the laundry room of the Grand Aleutian Hotel yesterday evening. The 911 call was received shortly before 5 o’clock, and a fire truck was on the scene within 6 minutes.

Deputy Chief Jennifer Shockley said responders found an active fire and black smoke. The building’s sprinkler system had been activated.  “They were able to get in there, determine that the source of the fire was a large commercial dryer, and get the fire put out,” she said. “I want to say the fire was extinguished in less than 10 minutes after they arrived.”

The fire was contained to the laundry room and did not spread anywhere else in the building. Shockley says that water and smoke damage appear to be limited to the laundry room and the surrounding area.

A staff member trained in arson investigation has inspected the scene, and Shockley says there is no reason to believe the fire was anything but an accident.

Hotel guests and staff were already being evacuated when responders arrived, and the emergency response was quick and effective. “It was a rapid response on our part,” Shockley said. “The fire got extinguished rapidly. The hotel had done the things that they needed to do in terms of getting the evacuation started. That’s great, it says really good things about the Grand Aleutian staff and dealing with a fire alarm.”

Of the eight fire and EMS responders at the scene, Shockley especially thanked the six who were volunteers from the community.

Apartment Building, Residential

Juneau, AK – Sprinklers activate in apartment blaze; fire damage limited to one unit

Capital City Fire/Rescue responded to a fire at the Channel View Apartments on Gastineau Avenue Sunday afternoon. Assistant Fire Chief Ed Quinto said only one unit was burned. Quinto said he didn’t know if there was any damage to the building’s roof, but the unit’s front-facing windows were broken.

A woman and two children who are presumed to have been in the unit when the fire happened went to the emergency room at Bartlett Regional Hospital because of smoke inhalation. As of 8:30 p.m., the woman was in stable condition and the two children were being evaluated.

The cause of the fire is still unknown.

While residents suffered few physical injuries, most of the low-income apartments have severe water damage.

Will Noel does maintenance for the apartments. He said 17 of the building’s 22 units have water damage from the sprinkler system that went off during the fire.

Noel said he saw the woman who lives in the burned apartment as she was leaving for the hospital and that she said her outlet had caught on fire. The fire marshal hasn’t identified a cause yet.

Other - Retail, Retail

Anchorage, AK – Sprinkler system helps firefighters contain fire at auto repair shop

A sprinkler system helped firefighters quickly control a fire at Alaska Transmission and Gear near Arctic Boulevard and Dowling Road, the department says. “When we arrived, there was just light smoke showing,” Anchorage Fire Department spokesman John See said of the 12:49 p.m. fire at 5901 Arctic Boulevard. The flames were contained to contents inside the business and did not necessarily burn the structure, See said. The fire was under control within minutes, he said. It’s unclear how the fire began.

Other Business, Place of Worship

Anchorage, AK – Sprinklers stop intentionally-set fire in church kitchen

Anchorage police say a Friday morning church fire was started by someone who broke into the building.

The fire occurred at the Lutheran Church of Hope on the 1800 block of W. Northern Lights Boulevard,

Someone broke in through a back window of the church, tore through the office, then used paperwork from inside to start the fire in the kitchen, according to the Anchorage Police Department.

The blaze activated the sprinkler system — which doused the fire before it could spread to other parts of the church, authorities say.

Apartment Building, Residential

Fairbanks, AK – Sprinkler system contains cooking fire at downtown apartment building

A sprinkler system contained a small cooking fire in a downtown Fairbanks apartment building Tuesday evening.

The fire broke out about 5:30 p.m. in an apartment on the third floor of the Golden Towers building, said Assistant Fire Chief Ernie Misewicz with the Fairbanks fire department. The automatic sprinkler extinguished the fire. 

“Nobody was displaced and damage was kept to a minimum,” he said.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Wasilla, AK – Sprinklers keep porch fire from extending into assisted living structures

Firefighters responded to a blaze at an assisted living home near Wasilla early Monday afternoon. Matanuska Susitna Borough deputy emergency services director Casey Cook says that 20 residents and all staff were safely evacuated as firemen arrived at 2:30 pm. No injuries have been reported.

Initial reports indicate the fire started on the front porch of the home, although an investigation is ongoing to determine the cause. Cook says most of the fire damage affects a front porch and an upstairs apartment, while other parts of the building incurred smoke and water damage.

“There was an added on balcony on the second and half of the third floor, and that was pretty much demolished by the fire. The actual living structure was sprinklered, and so the sprinkler stopped a lot of fire extending into the actual living structures…”