Tag Archives: Evening (6pm-9pm)

Primary / Secondary School, School / University

Spartanburg, SC – Sprinkler system activated for fire at middle school

The Westview Fairforest Fire Department is responding to a fire at Fairforest Middle School in Spartanburg County, according to Spartanburg County dispatch.

Chief Communications Officer of Spartanburg District 6 Cynthia Robinson says the school experienced a small office fire this evening near the school’s planetarium. 

Robinson says the fire alarm and sprinkler system was activated in the area, at around 7:20 this evening with city and county fire officials quickly responding to the scene. 

The fire has been contained to one area of the building, and clean up is currently underway, says Robinson.

She also says no one was in the building at the time of the fire. 

School will be held on a regular schedule tomorrow. 

Residential, Sorority / Fraternity

College Park, MD – Sprinkler system activated for fire at sorority house; No injuries reported

Members of the Tri Delta sorority evacuated their sorority house on Wednesday at about 6 p.m. after a fire broke out in the basement, according to Prince George’s County Fire Department spokesperson Michael Yourishin.

The sorority house’s sprinkler system put out the bulk of the fire, Yourishin said. Nobody in the house was injured.

“It just goes to show you the importance of having a sprinkler system in buildings like that,” Yourishin said.

Members of the sorority were evacuated for about an hour after the fire started in a dryer in the laundry room, said Tri Delta member Ellie Laffargue.

Laffargue, a junior public health science major, was in her room watching “Gilmore Girls” when the house’s fire alarms went off. At first, she thought it was one of many false alarms that occur in the house when sorority members blow dry their hair or accidentally set the alarms off, she said.

Laffargue said she darted down the stairs without shoes on after she heard the house chef scream at residents to evacuate.

Once it was safe to return back into the building, Laffargue says many of the residents noticed smoke in the hallways and in their rooms.

“Even when we were allowed back in, a lot of girls stayed outside because of how bad it smelled,” Laffargue said.

The laundry room is off-limits to residents for the next couple days due to smoke and water damage from the sprinklers, she added.

Other / Not Specified, Other Business

Concord, NH – Fire at pet store extinguished by sprinkler system; No injuries reported

Concord firefighters quickly extinguished a fire at Petco in Concord on Monday night with no injuries to people or animals. 

Shortly after 8:30 p.m., the department was alerted to an alarm at the Fort Eddy Road store. Companies arrived on the scene in less than four minutes and found the sprinkler system running.

A fire was burning in the grooming area was extinguished by Concord firefighters by 8:55 p.m. Concord Fire Marshal Paul Sirois determined the cause of the fire to be a malfunctioning air blower fan.

None of the mulititude of animals in the store were injured, firefighters said.

Firefighters remained on the scene for three hours removing smoke and water to prevent further damage and to conduct the investigation.

College/University (on campus), School / University

Frankfort, IL – Fire at vacant high school controlled by sprinkler system; No injuries reported

Frankfort Fire Protection District responded Monday to a fire alarm at Lincoln-Way North High School, 19900 S. Harlem Ave. in Frankfort, according to a post Tuesday on the fire district’s Facebook page. No one was inside the vacant high school at the time of the fire, and no injuries were reported, according to Frankfort Fire Protection District Chief Sean Fierce.

Frankfort FPD responded to the alarm around 8:17 p.m. and were able to smell a burning odor, Fierce said. Crews located the source of the fire in the basement of the closed high school, which prompted the Fire District to raise the alarm to that of a structure fire to bring in more resources, Fierce said.

Industrial batteries had malfunctioned, and officials said they believe that was what caused the fire, though the official determination is still under investigation. The burning batteries released hydrogen sulfide, which was ventilated before crews put out the fire, Fierce said.

The fire did not spread beyond the basement area where the fire started because the building’s sprinkler system activated, Fierce said.

Frankfort FPD estimated the damage to be approximately $5,000 to $10,000, according to the post.

Fire crews from Tinley Park, Matteson, East Joliet, Elwood, Park Forest, Orland Park, New Lenox and the State Fire Marshal’s Office assisted in the effort to put out the fire, according to the post.

Athletic Club/Sports Facility, Other Business

The Woodlands, TX – Commercial dryer fire at fitness center controlled by sprinkler system; No injuries reported

At approximately 8:30pm on September 10th, 2021, South Montgomery County Firefighters (Montgomery County ESD #8), were dispatched to reports of a fire alarm at the L.A. Fitness Signature Club located at 3570 Harmony Commons Drive. The first Fire Engine arrived in just minutes, reporting smoke in the building and a water flow alarm. The crew entered the building and determined that a fire had broken out in a commercial dryer in the club’s laundry room, but that a single fire sprinkler head had activated and controlled the fire before it could spread.

At the time of the fire, approximately 50 customers and employees were in the building when the fire started. Although the fire started in the un-occupied laundry room, they were able to escape unharmed when the alarm sounded.

The building’s fire sprinkler system was installed in 2018 by Interactive Fire Control Inc and inspected by MCESD 8 Fire Inspectors working hand in hand with the Montgomery County Fire Marshal’s Office. The MCFMO and MCESD #8 work together under an inter-local agreement to enforce the County Fire Code and insure the safety of residents and visitors.

The Montgomery County Commissioner’s Court first adopted a County-wide Fire Code in 2008 after a series of commercial fires damaged or destroyed several businesses in our community. Since that time, MCFMO personnel have reviewed building plans on over 100 million square feet of new construction projects and along with our partners, conduct thousands of inspections annually.

Retail, Shopping Mall

Riverside, CA – Sprinkler system activated for electrical fire at shopping center

An electrical malfunction triggered a fire at a Riverside shopping center that caused $15,000 in property damage to one business and left a firefighter with minor injuries, officials said Tuesday.

The blaze was reported at 7:20 p.m. Monday at 11070 Magnolia Ave., near La Sierra Avenue, on the city’s west side.

Riverside Fire Department Battalion Chief Garrett Coryell said nearly two dozen firefighters arrived to find a “working structure fire in the front office” of one of the businesses.

The fire was fully contained within 20 minutes to the room of origin and was traced to a failed electrical component, he said.

The building’s anti-fire sprinkler system activated during the blaze, causing some water damage, Coryell said.

He said one crew member suffered unspecified minor injuries but did not require hospitalization.

Storage / Warehouse, Warehouse

Pennsauken, NJ – Sprinkler system contains warehouse fire

Firefighters responded to a two-alarm fire at Sonoco Corp. on Aug. 27, the second fire at the same facility reported this year.

The Monmouth Junction Fire Department was dispatched to the Sonoco Corp. at 5 Stults Road off Route 130 in the Dayton section of South Brunswick for a fire alarm activation around 8 p.m. Aug. 27.

Shortly after receiving the call from the alarm company reporting the fire alarm, employees from the business called 9-1-1 and reported an active fire in the warehouse, according to information provided by the South Brunswick Police Department.

Monmouth Junction Fire Chief Scott Smith and Deputy Chief Sean Wert arrived to find a heavy smoke condition inside the building, according to reports.

Firefighters stretched hoselines inside and located palletized goods on fire, which was quickly contained, according to the statement.

A total of 10 fire trucks and over 50 firefighters responded to the two-alarm fire, including firefighters from Monmouth Junction, Kendall Park, Kingston, Jamesburg, Plainsboro, North Brunswick Co. No. 2, Monroe Fire District No. 3 and Hightstown.

Several large trailer-mounted fans from the Edison Fire Department were used to help ventilate the smoke condition created by burning plastic and cardboard.

Firefighters from Brookview, East Brunswick District No. 1, Griggstown and Montgomery Fire Co. No. 2 covered South Brunswick fire stations during the incident.

Ambulances from South Brunswick, North Brunswick and Monroe responded to the fire.

One firefighter was treated at the scene for heat stress and transported to Princeton hospital as a precaution, according to the statement.

“Fortunately, the sprinkler system contained the fire to several palletized stacks of goods in the warehouse,” Smith said in the statement. “It was a humid evening, so we had to rotate our firefighters frequently as they moved goods in the heavily packed warehouse in order to reach the seat of the fire to complete extinguishment. We even had firefighters operating fork-lifts to move unburned product.”

The fire is under investigation by the South Brunswick Township Fire Safety Bureau.

Manufacturing, Paper Mill / Saw Mill

Corpus Christi, TX – Sprinkler system activated for fire at paper company

Firefighters were called out to the Gulf Coast Paper Company Warehouse around 6:45 p.m. Sunday after several reports made to 911.

Fire crews saw smoke coming from the building when they arrived at the scene and quickly made their way inside.

“With this being a paper company with a fire of that magnitude certainly the lead time between fire and smoke it certainly could’ve gotten a whole lot worse there’s a lot of fire load inside and the sprinkler system certainly saved the day today,” said Battalion Chief David Saenz.  

The building has some water and fire damage, and officials say they will be investigating the actual cause of that blaze.

Other Business, Recycling / Waste Facility

Evansville, IN – Fire contained by sprinkler system at shredding facility; No injuries reported

The Evansville Fire Department is investigating a business fire that took place on Wednesday evening.

EFD crews were dispatched to Piranha Mobile Shredding on Franklin Street on Wednesday after an alarm service reported a sprinkler system activation at the business.

The fire department says crews arrived at the business around 7:00 p.m. and found a heavy haze inside the building.

The fire involved a baler, where EFD says most of the fire was contained by the sprinkler system.

No injuries occurred as a result of the fire, and no structural damage was reported.

EFD says the fire remains under investigation at this time.

Apartment Building, Residential

Tallahassee, FL – Apartment kitchen fire extinguished by sprinkler system; No injuries reported

The Tallahassee Fire Department says it responded to an apartment fire and duplex fire within a roughly six-hour period.

The call for the first fire came in around 6 p.m. Monday, and crews were sent to an apartment on the 400 block of West College Avenue, TFD says. As they arrived, firefighters realized the building’s sprinkler system put out the fire. TFD says the crews worked to remove smoke and water from the apartment.

All the people escaped from that fire safely. TFD determined the fire started from cooking in the kitchen.