Tag Archives: California

Uncategorized

Pleasanton, CA – Cooking fire at fairgrounds controlled by sprinkler system; No injuries reported

Cooking equipment left on overnight caused a fire inside one of the exhibition halls at the Alameda County Fairground early Monday morning, fire officials said.

“The exhibit used cooking pots with heating elements attached for their display,” Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department Battalion Chief Jack Neiman-Kimel said. “It appears the pot was left on and when the water evaporated the pots melted and caught fire.”

The blaze was contained to the exhibit, which was located in the A building. A sprinkler helped control the fire until firefighters were able to extinguish flames. The fire charred the nearby walls and the building had smoke and water throughout, according to Neiman-Kimel.

No one was injured during the incident and the damage from the fire will not interrupt the fair or its exhibits this week. The damage will likely be repaired by Wednesday.

“It is important to remember to turn off all cooking equipment before leaving your residence or business,” Neiman-Kimel told Patch.

Hotel / Restaurant, Restaurant

Sacramento, CA – Sprinkler system contains restaurant fire; No injuries reported

Cosumnes Fire investigators determined that a discarded cigarette sparked a fire that damaged the BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse on May 11. The restaurant was evacuated that night and it was reopened the next day. No injuries were reported.

This fire first burned bark outside the restaurant on Laguna Springs Drive around 5 p.m. and then spread to the building. Cosumnes Fire Chief Mike McLaughlin said that evening’s strong winds fueled the fire and caused flames to burn a wall and spread into the attic.

“The fire sprinkler system worked as designed and contained the fire when one head activated,” he said.

Cosumnes, Sacramento City, and Sacramento County Metropolitan firefighters extinguished the fire.

Uncategorized

Napa, CA – Fire in vacant building extinguished with help from sprinkler system

Firefighters responded to a suspicious fire at a vacant building at the end of Valle Verde Drive in Napa on Thursday night, according to Napa City Fire.

The small fire was mostly extinguished by a sprinkler inside the building, firefighters said. Firefighters were at the scene for about an hour turning the sprinkler head off and pushing out smoke.

No injuries were reported and no witnesses were at the scene.

Residential, Single Family Home

Apple Valley, CA – House fire caused by BBQ grill is contained by sprinkler system

Firefighters quickly doused a blaze at a home here Tuesday evening, officials said. Reported at 5:46 p.m., Apple Valley Fire Protection District personnel made quick work of the fire, which occurred at a home in the 19300 block of Glaslyn Court, in the Jess Ranch area. AVFPD Fire Marshal Brian Pachman said the district responded with a “full first alarm” response. Firefighters arrived on scene to find heavy smoke coming from the back of the home “with danger of spreading through the entire structure.”

“Fire crews entered the [home] and took to the roof with swift and aggressive ventilation and contained the fire to the rear living room area,” Pachman said. “One residential sprinkler head was activated and kept the fire in check until units quickly arrived.”

The fire is believed to have originated from a barbecue grill at the home, with one resident reporting that “smoke and fire” were coming from the grill right before they called 911. One occupant was transported to a local hospital with “cuts to his body from breaking glass,” Pachman said. No other injuries were reported. Pachman credited the quick response to nearby Fire Station 337, which was reopened a year ago after voters approved Measure A, a special tax intended to boost fire services.

“This would have been a different outcome without the successful passing of Measure A,” Pachman said. The cause of the blaze remains under investigation, but Pachman said fire investigators are looking closely at the grill “being a contributing factor.”

Residence Hall/Dormitory, Residential

Bakersfield, CA – Sprinklers activated after early morning fire in residence hall; No injuries reported

A student was arrested by university police at 5 a.m. Saturday after starting a fire in Juniper Hall that same morning. No students were injured during the incident or evacuation.

Students were forced to evacuate and stand in the cold for over an hour while Bakersfield Fire Department swept the building and made sure it was safe for students to return.

According to a press release from CSUB director of communications Michael Lukens, at approximately 3:10 a.m. on Saturday morning, university police received a fire and water flow alarm at Student Housing East.

Upon their arrival students were evacuating the buildings, and officers “located smoke in one of the buildings and a fire sprinkler was activated.,” according to the press release.

Bakersfield Fire responded and the source of the fire was already extinguished.

Bakersfield Fire assisted with removing as much of the water as they could during their clean up. There was water damage to the building.”

Freshman Jaime Cortez, an art major, was asleep in his room on the third floor of Juniper Hall when the alarm went off.

“I was asleep, and my roommates, they were telling me like we have to evacuate, at first I thought they were just messing around, but then when I woke up they were actually like serious, so we all had to evacuate,” said Cortez.

The press release states that in the course of their investigation, UPD determined that “the source of the fire appears to be an arson. Also, UPD determined that a domestic violence incident occurred during this incident also. Thus far, one person has been arrested for domestic violence and the case is being finalized for a complaint. The arson case is an ongoing investigation.”

Gilford has already made bail and the complaints are continuing to be completed by the Bakersfield Police Department.

“What I heard is that there’s been a fire that happened on the first floor, and I think a girl [was] trying to burn her boyfriend’s pants, like she lit them on fire, and I guess that’s what caused the scene of the fire, that’s what I’m hearing,” said Cortez.

“If, hypothetically, somebody set fire to somebody else’s property and it led to thousands of dollars of damage, it is likely that they would be not only be removed from the facility, but their student status at CSUB would be highly under question. Is it likely that they could face some sort of penalty like suspension or expulsion from school? That’s possible… I can tell you that there have been actions taken,” said Crystal Becks, Director of Student Housing at CSUB.

While she would not comment on the specifics of an ongoing investigation, Becks did express how grateful she was that everything worked the way it was intended.

“One of the things that i’m really happy about in this situation is that everything worked the way that it was supposed to. If the sprinkler hadn’t gone off in the closet, it probably wouldn’t have been the whole building, because we have sprinklers in each room, but at the very minimum it would have been a room gone, more furniture, more peoples belongings, more water damage,” said Beck.

“When I think of scenarios from A-Z, Z being the worst, a building goes or peoples lives are taken, that’s the Z, we are somewhere between A, B, and C, we were that fortunate because every system worked the way that it was supposed to.”

As for the aftermath, there is now work to be done. Beck estimates that the building suffered several thousands of dollars worth of water damage across the four rooms and one hallway that were directly affected.

“It like peeling back layers of an onion,” says Beck of the growing repair costs. Beck estimates that five to six students’ rooms were directly affected by water damage.

“All of the students are able to return to their rooms, except for the people who were in that suite [where the sprinkler went off]. But we have also offered for them to move elsewhere so they don’t have to deal with the chaos of the repairs. And we’re in the process of working through those individuals, because some people actually want to stay where they are, but we want them to not have to deal with noise and dust and all the stuff that’s going to come with that,” said Beck.

And as for any personal property damage that occurred during this incident, students may be on their own.

“There is no way that there were students who didn’t have stuff damaged. There had to have been some damage, I don’t know specifically what at this point, because students are still notifying us,” said Beck.

“For the students who have renters insurance, it’s going to be real easy. For the students who don’t have renters insurance, it’s going to be more complicated, because if it is determined that [the fire] was set by an individual, then they will have to pursue that person civilly, the university won’t be responsible,” said Beck.

One lesson that Beck hopes everyone takes away from this incident is that when you hear the fire alarm, evacuate the building.

“When a student hears that alarm, they don’t know if its a drill, or if its real, and it just illustrates that it’s really really important, when you hear the alarm, whether you know its a drill or not, it’s important to leave. And for the most part students were very compliant, [but] some of them weren’t sure and they stayed,” said Beck.

Freshman Jamie Nupkese was one of those students. “Me and my roommate we just woke up, at first we kinda went back to sleep because we thought it was a false alarm, so it was just like whatever, but then it kept going on, so everyone in the dorm, we just went outside, and then we went downstairs,” said Nupkese.

“As the director of housing, that terrifies me because things can be replaced, people can’t. So that is the piece about this that as a team we are trying to figure out the most, how doe we drive that home. When you hear the alarm, that means your life is in jeopardy,” said Nupkese.

Residential, Single Family Home

Ventura, CA – Early morning fire in single-family home controlled by sprinkler system

A fire Tuesday morning at a two-story home in east Ventura was put out with the help of firefighters and interior sprinklers.  Crews from the Ventura Fire Department responded to the incident at 5:28 a.m. in the 300 block of El Monte Avenue and saw smoke coming from an upstairs bedroom window, fire officials said.  Firefighters went inside to extinguish the blaze, which had been kept under control by a residential fire sprinkler system. They also let out smoke and got control of water from the sprinkler system.  No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is under investigation, fire officials said. It was not immediately clear whether the residents could return to the home.

Manufacturing, Manufacturing Plant

Oxnard, CA – Sprinkler system assist firefighters in knocking down fire at manufacturing plant

A piece of equipment at an Oxnard manufacturing facility caught fire Saturday morning, summoning fire engines and two ladder trucks, officials said. The commercial structure fire was reported around 9:25 a.m. at 1400 Statham Parkway at a Haas Automation Inc. facility, authorities said. The street is in an industrial area off Statham Boulevard on the south side of Oxnard Boulevard. A sanding unit at the site caught fire, said Oxnard Fire Department Battalion Chief Steve McNaughten. A sprinkler system in the building was activated, he said. Employees evacuated the building and called 911, McNaughten said. No injuries were reported. Responding fire personnel found light smoke at the scene and were able to hold the fire to the sanding unit, he said. Six fire engines, two ladder trucks and a battalion chief, all from the Oxnard department, responded. Crews were able to knock down the fire within 15 minutes and had put it out by 9:55 a.m., McNaughten said. They remained on the scene for a time to recover smoke and remove water from the fire-suppression effort, he said.

Retail, Shopping Mall

Palm Springs, CA – Hallway fire at outdoor shopping plaza limited by automatic sprinkler system

Palm Springs firefighters put out an early Sunday morning blaze in downtown Palm Springs. Crews got the call of the fire at around 6 a.m. and found smoke in a building at the Mercado Plaza on Palm Canyon Drive. Firefighters say the blaze was contained in a exterior hallway by the sprinkler system. This blaze comes after a dumpster fire in the same area about a month ago.  An owner of Maracas Cantina says it’s frustrating this has happened more than once. “You don’t want to have these things coming up and as a business owner, it’s really disruptive,” Todd Flood, an owner of Maracas Cantina, said. “We’re going to open a couple hours late today and we miss some business.”  The fire did not cause any restaurants to close, just delays for some businesses opening, according to Flood. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Oakland, CA – Fire on 10th floor of senior care home suppressed by sprinkler system

Firefighters were called at 2:27 a.m. to the Northgate Terrace senior homes, located at 550 24th St. between Northgate and Telegraph avenues and a block east of I-980. The blaze was contained to one residence on the 10th floor of the 12-story building, Paganelli said.  “It certainly had to be scary for the residents waking up in the middle of the night with the place filled with smoke,” Paganelli said.

As a precaution, the 10th floor was evacuated, and about two dozen people could be seen on the ground floor of the building. A sprinkler system inside the apartment unit primarily extinguished the blaze and kept the flames from spreading, officials said.  Firefighters used stairways to get to the floor because the elevators stopped working when fire alarms sounded. It was fully under control in about 20 minutes. The high-rise level response brought more than three dozen firefighters to the scene, including Chief Darin White.

One resident was injured early Saturday after a fire broke out on the 10th floor of a senior care home near Interstate 980, a fire official said.  The injured woman was taken to a hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation, according to Oakland Fire Department Acting Battalion Chief Tracy Paganelli.

Fire investigator Javon Smith said the cause was accidental. Units on the 10th floor and adjacent floors suffered water and smoke damage, and some of those residents received assistance from the Red Cross. The damage figure was not released.  The building is home to more than 200 residents, ranging in age from 62 to their 90s, according to on-site manager Alicia Zhao.

Grocery Store / Super Center, Retail

McKinleyville, CA – Sprinkler system at Safeway store keeps fire from spreading, limits damage

Arcata Fire District firefighters were called to a reported structure fire at the McKinleyville Safeway located at 1503 City Center Road.  Battalion Chief Gomes arrived on scene first and discovered black smoke coming from a vent on the back of the building. Being Sprinkler familiar with the building layout, Gomes knew the fire was in the storeroom and directed the first due engine from the McKinleyville Station to make entry at the rear of the store, and initiate fire attack.  Store employees confirmed the fires location and had initiated a building evacuation.  The crews located the fire in the loft machinery room, above the rear storeroom and the building’s sprinkler system had been triggered.  The fire attack team used the buildings ladder way to gain access to the loft and deploy a hose line to the fire to complete extinguishment.  The second arriving engine from Mad River Station supported the fire attack operation by securing a water supply. The third engine from Arcata Station, and subsequent arriving CalFire and Fieldbrook engines, assisted with water removal to the sales floor and storeroom and applied salvage techniques to save computer equipment and merchandise.   

The fire loss was minimal, with an estimate of $2000 in damages.  Battalion Chief Gomes reports “The fire was held by the sprinkler systems that had activated properly, which assisted the firefighters in quickly extinguishing the burning material.  The combination of the two, saved this multi-million dollar building and its contents. Safeway was open for business the next day.”

The cause of fire was determined to be ordinary combustibles stored too close to hot mechanical equipment.

Additional engines from Humboldt Bay Fire and Blue Lake Fire covered District stations while the incident was occurring.

Arcata Fire District would like to remind all businesses and residents to keep adequate clearance around mechanical and electrical service equipment and ensure that sprinkler systems and extinguishers are checked regularly and functioning properly.