Tag Archives: Maine

Manufacturing, Manufacturing Plant

Gorham, ME – Machinery fire at tool company held in check by sprinkler system

A tool company in Gorham had to evacuate Tuesday morning after a fire broke out inside the building. It happened at Irwin Tools on Bartlett Road just after 7 a.m. Crews from several different departments assisted Gorham in fighting the flames

Gorham’s fire chief says employees were inside working at the time. No one was hurt. The chief says the building’s sprinkler system kept the fire under control until crews arrived. “No question, the sprinkler system kept the fire in check inside until the crews could get in and get it knocked down,” Chief Robert Lefebvre, Gorham Fire Department, said. “There’s metal filings from machines that make tools and such, at this point not sure what machines in the area that caused it. We’ll be looking into that down the road.”

Chief Lefebvre says it appears the fire started near the ceiling level. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Residential, Single Family Home

Rockland, ME – House fire quickly extinguished by sprinkler system

Two house fires were quickly extinguished but could have had severe consequences if not for safety systems in each residence, the local fire chief said in a press release Monday. The first fire call came in shortly before 11:30 p.m. Friday when Rockland police officers heard an exterior bell connected to the sprinkler system as they passed by a home on Union Street.

A resident had dumped the contents of an ashtray into a plastic bag and left the bag on the first floor before going to bed on the second floor. The bag ignited within 30 minutes but was put out by an automatic sprinkler system. The activation of the sprinkler awoke the resident who came downstairs to begin a cleanup.

While the sprinkler alarm went off, Fire Chief Adam Miceli said that the only smoke detector found in the residence had not gone off during the fire. The chief said that could have been because the sprinklers doused the fire before enough smoke had been generated to activate the smoke alarm. He said that the fire was located near the stairs and that there was not a second exit.

 

Manufacturing, Manufacturing Plant

Oxford, ME – Sprinklers suppress fire at factory that builds manufactured homes

Oxford’s fire chief said a sprinkler system and quick reaction by firefighters kept a blaze at a manufactured homes factory from spreading significantly Friday night.

Chief Wayne Jones said the fire started in a stack of plywood in a corner of the Keiser Homes plant at 56 Mechanic Falls Road. He said the cause is unknown and the State Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the fire.  Jones said the fire spread about 20 feet or so into the building. The sprinkler system kept the flames in check initially, he said, and firefighters were able to get water hoses set up quickly and started to spray down the building within minutes of arriving.

The fire was reported about 4:45 p.m., when most of the workers had finished for the day and only one employee was in the plant, he said. One firefighter was taken to a local hospital to be treated for heat exhaustion, Jones said, and another was treated at the scene for what he said was a minor injury. No one else was hurt, the chief said.

Jones said even though firefighters were able to keep the flames from spreading, it still took about five hours to get the fire fully under control. He said an Oxford fire crew was expected to spend most of the night at the site to make sure there weren’t any hot spots remaining that could cause the fire to flare up.

More than a half-dozen nearby towns sent crews to help with the fire or to cover Oxford fire stations during the evening, Jones said. Route 121, which is Mechanic Falls Road in Oxford, was shut down part of Friday evening but had reopened by about 10 p.m.

Other / Not Specified, Other Business

Lewiston, ME – Sprinklers help extinguish fire in mixed-use downtown building

The fire began just after 6:30 p.m. at a four-story building at 221 Lisbon St. The Lewiston Fire Department told News 8 improperly disposed of smoking materials landed in dry mulch. Embers from the fire were kicked up by high winds and were blown into the basement.

The building’s sprinkler system extinguished most of the flames. The fire caused a few thousand dollars in damage and no one was injured.

Manufacturing, Paper Mill / Saw Mill

Lincoln, ME – Sprinkler system helps save wood mill from extensive damage

A sprinkler system helped save a Main Street wood mill from extensive damage in a nagging fire that took about three hours to contain on Tuesday.

No injuries were reported, firefighters said.

Passers-by reported the fire at about 4:20 p.m. at LMJ Enterprises, 431 Main St., police said. The mill’s screening equipment and some other machinery at the east end of the main building were destroyed, Lincoln fire Capt. Bob Bean said.

The mill, which makes wood shavings for animal bedding, would have taken heavy damage had the flames been carried by the mill’s conveyer belts from the screening equipment into the mill’s attic area, Bean said.

“The fire did not get into the mill,” Bean said Tuesday. “The sprinkler system kicked in, and that bought us enough time to get a handle on it.”

Manufacturing, Paper Mill / Saw Mill

Old Town, ME – Mill fire doused by sprinkler system; no injuries

Fire crews from four towns battled a fire at the Expera Mill in Old Town today.

Flames broke out in the number-four turbine area just after 10 this morning.

Firefighters arrived to find heavy smoke between the first and second floors.

We’re told oil and debris caught fire.

“We sent two crews in, one to the bottom floor, one to the top floor. We worked our way down to it, and the sprinkler system had gone off and that extinguished most of it. And we just continued with extinguishing the hot spots and making sure that everything was all right. And it was turned back over to mill personnel, probably within a half an hour, 45 minutes,” said Captain Mike HIldreth of Old Town Fire Department.

Hildreth says damage doesn’t appear to be too extensive.

No word on a cause yet.

No one was hurt.

Nursing Home/Senior Living

Bar Harbor, ME – Sprinklers douse fire at low-income and senior housing facility

Smoke coming from a window of an apartment at Harbor Hill Estate on Highbrook Road drew a quick response from firefighters just after 1 p.m.

Firefighters tapped into a hydrant on Route 3 and ran the line across the road, while police detoured traffic through College of the Atlantic for the better part of an hour. The fire was doused by the apartment’s automatic sprinkler system as firefighters arrived.

The smoke-filled apartment was ventilated.

No one was home at the time of the fire, according to reports.

As of 3 p.m., Fire Chief Matt Bartlett remained on scene investigating the cause.

Harbor Hill Estate is a low-income and senior housing facility.

Apartment Building, Residential

Rockland, ME – Sprinkler extinguishes fire in 44-unit downtown apartment building; No injuries

A fire damaged one apartment and a business Monday evening in a historic downtown apartment complex. The fire chief said a sprinkler head extinguished the fire in the one apartment where the fire broke out. 

There were no injuries but the fire at the Thorndike Building kept Rockland firefighters at the scene for more than two hours. Residents of the 44-unit apartment complex were evacuated. The fire was reported at 5:25 p.m. by a resident of a second-floor apartment at the Thorndike, a four-story brick complex that has businesses on the Main Street level and apartments on the upper two floors.

The fire is not believed to be of suspicious origin, said Rockland Fire Chief Adam Miceli. The state fire marshal’s office has been called in to assist in the investigation but Miceli said there was work being done outside the building near the second floor rear apartment and which may be connected to the fire. While there was smoke in the hallways, there was no real smoke damage in those areas.

Auto Dealership, Retail

Sprinkler system contains fire in multi-purpose commercial building (Falmouth, ME)

Falmouth firefighters put out a fire in a commercial building that the town’s fire chief said could have caused more damage Sunday afternoon if not for the building’s sprinkler system, which helped suppress the flames.  Fire Chief Howard Rice Jr. said a fire alarm sounded at 12:29 p.m. in the multi-use commercial building at 196 Route 1.

Rice said the fire started in an electrical room in the Morong Falmouth Service Center, a car dealership at the front of the commercial structure. Rice said the fire burned materials that were stored in the room. He said the sprinkler system helped contain the fire to the electrical room.

Apartment Building, Residential

Damage minimized at four-story apartment building thanks to fire sprinklers (Portland, ME)

An unattended stove while cooking was the cause of a fire which began in a second-floor apartment on Friday, October 25. Firefighters arrived to the scene at about 10 p.m. and praised the building’s fire sprinkler system, with Fire Chief David Jackson saying that the fire could have been much very dangerous had it not been for the sprinkler system. 

“The systems worked exactly as they should have,” Jackson said.