Tag Archives: California

Apartment Building, Residential High Rise

Orange, CA – Overnight high-rise apartment fire suppressed by sprinklers; potential disaster averted

(Blog Note: Please let us know what you think of this journalist’s focus on water damage rather than the lives and property saved by the sprinkler system in this overnight, high-rise fire).   Orange police and fire officials responded around 12:15 a.m. to reports of a structure fire at the Community Garden Towers in the 4000 block of West Garden Grove Boulevard, and found smoke coming from the fourth floor, officials said.

Authorities found a mattress on fire on the floor and the flames activated the sprinkler system in the building. Authorities said the building was evacuated and electricity may have been briefly turned off, but residents were able to re-enter the building shortly after the fire was extinguished.

Orange police initially detained a man who lives in the unit where the fire started on suspicion that he may have intentionally started it, Deputy Fire Marshal Casey Fieldhouse said.

But he was later released and not arrested, police Sgt. Phil McMullin.  Three people were displaced due to the damage and were assisted by local Red Cross officials. Authorities did not initially release the cause of the fire or damage estimates.

College/University (on campus), School / University

Los Angeles, CA – Fire at UCLA engineering building contained by single sprinkler

A small electrical fire broke out at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering on the UCLA campus in Westwood on Saturday, but it was held in check by a sprinkler and was out when firefighters arrived, authorities said.  No injuries were reported and no one was evacuated as a result of the fire, which was reported just after 4 p.m.

Apartment Building, Residential

Palo Alto, CA – Sprinkler system contains apartment fire started by teenager cooking hash oil

A teenager who police said was cooking hash oil in his Palo Alto apartment was arrested Thursday night after he started a fire that displaced several residents in the apartment complex.

The 17-year-old male, whose identity is not being released because he is a juvenile, was reportedly trying to make hash oil in the kitchen at around 8:40 p.m. Police said he was using the kitchen stove and liquid butane to make the liquid substance, a concentrated form of cannabis that can be smoked or ingested. The teenager briefly left the stove unattended and a fire started, triggering the building’s sprinkler system, police said.

The Palo Alto Fire Department received calls from several residents about the fire, but when police officers and firefighters arrived on scene they found that the fire had already been extinguished by the sprinkler system, according to police.

The fire damaged the kitchen but was otherwise contained, police said. Yet both the teenager’s apartment and two neighboring apartments sustained major water damage and were deemed uninhabitable for the night. American Red Cross workers helped the residents in the neighboring apartments obtain shelter for the night, police said.

In investigating the fire, police said they determined that once the fire was extinguished, the teen tossed the butane canisters down a nearby trash chute and tried to flush down the toilet a “substantial amount of marijuana.”

After paramedics treated him for a burn on his arm, the teenager was cited for one felony count of manufacturing hash oil and one misdemeanor count of destruction of evidence. He was released into the custody of a parent, police said.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the department’s 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be emailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to 650-383-8984.

Hotel / Motel, Hotel / Restaurant

Sunnyvale, CA – Hotel dryer fire extinguished by sprinkler system

A dryer in a hotel caught fire and spread in the laundry room. The fire was extinguished by the sprinkler system by the time Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety fire personnel responded. The smoke was cleared from the building, and it was determined that no one was injured.

Compiled from Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety reports.
Fire– June 15, 2:36 p.m. S. Sunnyvale Avenue.

Hotel / Restaurant, Restaurant

Santa Monica, CA – Fire at popular Santa Monica Pier restaurant extinguished by sprinkler system

Walking into The Lobster restaurant, past the full bar and into the dining area that overlooks the Santa Monica Pier, it’s almost impossible to notice the area where a fire in the kitchen spread to a booth early Saturday morning. A white sheet temporarily covered the area earlier this week, the only visible reminder of the incident.

The Lobster, a fresh seafood restaurant off Ocean Avenue next to the mouth of the Santa Monica Pier,reopened Monday after a two-day closure. The fire is believed to have sprouted from a kitchen stove and leaped the wall it shared with a booth on the other side, catching the booth afire and  splintering its glass headboard mounted on the wall.

The fire lasted from 6:13 am to 6:33 am before the restaurant’s sprinkler system put out the short-lived flames. “We are still under investigation,” said Lynne Thomas, Marketing Director and Director of Community Events at The Lobster, “but as of now we believe that it was a heat fire that fortunately only sparked the booth.”

The restaurant’s cleaning crew was the first to notice the fire Saturday morning, immediately reporting it to the Santa Monica Fire Department, who shortly thereafter arrived on the scene,spraying a fire extinguisher that killed the dying embers.  “We were very happy it wasn’t worse and very happy no one was hurt,” Thomas said.

Both the stove and the booth were removed earlier this week. The Fire Department is investigating how the fire started. The incident closed the Lobster for two days while they fixed up the damage and charred areas.

“We were closed Saturday and all day Sunday,” said Thomas.“We were pretty much working around the clock to try and get open again…and reopened Monday. “It was hard because so many people had reservations. It was graduation weekend and it was really sad for us not to be able to reopen. We were doing what we could to get open as soon as we could,” she said.

Storage / Warehouse, Warehouse

Modesto, CA – Sprinklers help contain fire in warehouse containing fireworks, almonds

Fire crews were able to contain a fire at a warehouse that contains walnuts and fireworks in unincorporated Modesto, officials said. Firefighters were called to the large warehouse in the 2300 block of Tenaya Street just after noon Sunday, the Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District said.

The building’s automatic sprinkler system was activated and helped partially control the flames from spreading. When crews arrived, they saw smoke coming off the roof of the building and called for additional help. The east end of the warehouse was full of large bins of ground walnuts while the west end was full of fireworks. A firewall separated the fireworks and burning hulls of walnuts.

Nearly 30 firefighters with the fire district and the Modesto and Ceres fire departments were called to the warehouse to battle the blaze. No injuries were reported.

Residential, Single Family Home

Petaluma, CA – Sprinkler controls fire in home under construction; Protective cap still in place

A blaze that broke out Thursday inside a three-story home under construction northwest of Petaluma could have been much worse had a sprinkler system not activated and limited the fire’s spread, a fire official said.

“Under different circumstances, it could have been a much larger fire,” said Rancho Adobe Fire Battalion Chief Mike Weihman.  The blaze at 3528 Skillman Lane was reported at about 5:55 p.m. by a neighbor who spotted smoke billowing from the unfinished house.

Weihman said the fire broke out in a first-floor room at the rear of the structure that was being used by construction workers. The room also had an overhead fire sprinkler that activated despite being so new that it still had a dust cover over it. Weihman said water from the sprinkler doused most of the flames, greatly assisting firefighters, who brought the blaze under control within 20 minutes of their arrival on scene.

Other / Not Specified, Other Business

Napa, CA – Sprinklers credited with extinguishing overnight fire at design center

An automatic sprinkler is credited with putting out a fire in the pre-dawn hours in a business at Tannery Row, 101 S. Coombs St., the Napa Fire Department reported.  The call came in at 3:48 a.m. Thursday as a water flow alarm, suggesting that heat had triggered a fire sprinkler, said Capt. Roger Reichenberg, whose engine crew responded from Station No. 4 on Gasser Drive.

Firefighters discovered water flowing from under a wall at VonSaal Design Center. When they forced open a door, they found that a sprinkler had extinguished a small blaze at a work bench, Reichenberg said.

The owner, Richard Von Saal, had been working late into the night on items for this weekend’s Auction Napa Valley, when a spark apparently jumped from one bench to another, creating the fire that blazed after he left the building, he said. The fire was contained to the single work bench and apparently did no damage to Von Saal’s creations, Reichenberg said. 

Firefighters stayed on the scene to vacuum up water that also had seeped into a space rented by ZuZu restaurant and tapas bar, he said.

Department Store, Retail

Sacramento, CA – Sprinkler system contains fire at Macy’s; Store reopens same day

The Macy’s store in Arden Fair mall has reopened following a small single-alarm fire this morning, Sacramento Fire Department officials said. Firefighters responded to the fire, which took place in an attic air-conditioning unit, at 9:40 a.m. said Roberto Padilla, fire department spokesman. The building’s sprinkler system kept the fire contained, although there was some smoke in the basement, elevator shafts and third floor, he said.

The fire is no longer active and all units have cleared the scene, Padilla said. Arden Fair Mall officials said the store reopened for business this afternoon.