A fire at the Winthrop STEM Elementary Magnet School has been knocked down, according to New London Fire Chief Henry Kydd Jr. The fire, which began about 9 p.m. Friday evening, caused the sprinkler system to go off and was confined to one classroom, the chief said. There were no injuries reported.
Two custodians, who heard the fire alarm go off and evacuated, said they were the only people in the school at the time. Superintendent Manuel J. Rivera, at the scene, said school officials will need to assess the scene when firefighters finish their work to see how it will impact operations. However, with the long weekend, he said they are optimistic that building staff will be able to get the school in shape for the return of students on Tuesday. No further information was available.
New Canaan firefighters on Monday night put out a blaze that had broken out in the third story of a commercial building at the corner of on Main Street and East Avenue, prompting emergency responders to close the area to motor vehicle traffic. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the fire at 96 Main St., though it appeared to have started in the attic of the prominent downtown building, according to Fire Chief Jack Hennessey.
“Sprinklers assisted with putting out the fire,” Hennessey told NewCanaanite.com. “The sprinklers saved the day. It could have been a very, very serious fire. Right now we are making sure that we got all of the fire and we are dealing with the water damage from the sprinkler system.”
No one was hurt in the blaze, which drew multiple New Canaan Police and Fire Department vehicles—including Engine 1 and Ladder 2—at about 7:48 p.m., officials said. The full extent of the damage could not immediately be assessed, Hennessey said, though it included structural damage in the attic and water damage on the third floor and possibly second floor.
“It’s dark and it’s still a mess, so it’s hard to tell,” he said. The smell of smoke wafted down from the building on this windy Labor Day night, as some dozen people milled about the street and sidewalk below.
Police closed Main Street between Locust and East Avenues, and also directed eastbound traffic on East Avenue back down away from the scene. The 1912-built, brick-exterior building—long known as the “Wire Whisk” space and currently occupied by both New Canaan Nails & Spa and Kaahve coffee shop on the ground floor facing Main Street, and Cava restaurant on a lower level around Forest Street—is known to longtime locals as the former base of Elliot Noyes & Associates, named for the Harvard Five architect who worked and resided in New Canaan.
Five occupants were injured early Sunday morning as a result of a fire that broke out in a woman’s apartment at the Woodcrest Senior Housing complex at 75 Battle St., a fire official said.
The fire was contained to the living room of a second-floor apartment, Fire Chief John Roache said today. The elderly woman who lived in the apartment was rescued by firefighters and bystanders and taken to Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford, he said.
Another elderly woman from a different apartment suffered minor back injuries during the evacuation of the building and was transported to Johnson Memorial Hospital, Roache said.
Both women have been released from the hospital, he said. Three additional occupants suffered smoke inhalation but refused to be taken to the hospital and were treated at the scene, he said.
The Fire Department responded to an automatic fire alarm at the apartment complex just after 1 a.m. Sunday, Roache said. Firefighters extinguished the fire “in seconds” and the building’s sprinkler system was instrumental in keeping the situation from escalating, he said.
“Smoke detectors and automatic sprinklers stopped this from being much worse,” Roache said.
He said a lamp cord that ran along a couch in the living room of the apartment where the fire started appears to have caused the blaze. The cord had likely sustained damage over time due to being placed in the couch’s reclining section, Roache said. This damage appears to have caused a short, he added.
The tenant of the apartment where the fire started is currently staying with family members while her residence is repaired, Roache said. He did not have the names of those who were injured.
A fire that started in a dryer at Cozy Corner Laundromat injured one patron Tuesday evening before firefighters could douse the blaze.
At 6:35 p.m. firefighters responded to an emergency call from the laundromat, located at 255 Main St., and found heavy smoke when they arrived, Assistant Fire Chief Francis DeBella said.
“The sprinkler system held the fire in check, while we were able to get in there and extinguish it in about an hour,” he said.
The fire originated in a dryer, DeBella said, and burned a female customer who had tried to douse the flames.
The woman’s burns were minor ones, he said, and she was evaluated by the Lions Club ambulance crew.
Firefighters from Bradley International Airport responded to the scene with their ladder truck, and police assisted with traffic control.
The fire marshal is investigating the cause of the blaze.
Reporting on lives and property saved by fire sprinklers
