Tag Archives: Morning (7am-12pm)

Storage / Warehouse, Warehouse

Sandwich, IL – Storage fire at molding business distribution center held in check by sprinkler system

The Sandwich Fire Department extinguished a blaze at the Plano Molding Company on Thursday.  Fire officials were dispatched to the Plano Molding Company, which is located at 500 Duvick Ave. at approximately 11:24 a.m. for an activated fire alarm. While officials were enroute to the scene, they were updated from 911 calls that there was a fire within the building at 510 Duvick Ave., which is the Plano Molding distribution warehouse. Fire units found that the sprinkler system was active, and that there was a fire in the stack of pallets inside the building.

All occupants of the building evacuated safely, and there were no injuries reported.  The sprinkler system in the building kept the fire smoldering until fire crews were able to fully extinguish the fire. Fire crews extinguished the fire in approximately 20 minutes. Crews worked to clear the smoke out of the building and remove the burnt material outside.  Officials from the Sandwich Fire Department were assisted on scene by Little-Rock Fox, Bristol-Kendall, Newark and Somonauk Fire.  The Sandwich Fire Station was covered with help from the Oswego and Big Rock Fire Departments.

Other - Retail, Retail

Palo Alto, CA – Suspicious fire at furniture store minimized with help from sprinkler system

Palo Alto firefighters doused what appeared to be a “suspicious” fire at the rear of a furniture store to the Town & Country Village this morning, fire officials said.  Crews reported to the blaze at the rear of Cisco Home at 855 El Camino Real shortly after 7 a.m., Deputy Fire Chief Catherine Capriles said.

The fire “appears to be suspicious,” according to Battalion Chief Chris Woodard. An initial report indicated the fire was inside CVS Pharmacy, which is adjacent to Cisco, but Capriles later clarified that it was inside a storage room at the furniture store.

Crews had to force their way inside the store that was locked up at the time, and discovered the blaze in a storage room.  A sprinkler system was activated once they arrived and extinguished the fire, Capriles said.  The incident was upgraded to a second-alarm response that brought additional units to the scene, but crews later determined the fire was under control.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.  Access to the shopping center was limited while crews work to extinguish the fire, police said in a tweet.  At about 8:40 a.m., crews were cleaning up in the area where traffic was “no longer significantly impacted,” police tweeted.  Crews left the scene around 9 a.m., Capriles said.

Bob Wenzlau was in the area around 9 a.m. and said there appeared to be no apparent structural damage from the fire, which appeared to damage property at Cisco Home.  A damage estimate for the fire wasn’t available this morning.

Office Building, Other Business

Reston, VA – Cubicle fire in 11th floor office contained by sprinkler system; No injuries reported

Firefighters were dispatched for a fire alarm in a high rise building in the 12000 block of Sunset Hills Road in Reston on Sunday, Aug. 20, at approximately 7:51 a.m., according to the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department.

The building was occupied by approximately 20 employees at the time of the fire. All occupants safely evacuated the building, according to the department.

No smoke or fire was evident from the outside of the 12-story, commercial high rise building. Crews proceeded to the eleventh floor where they discovered a significant amount of smoke, according to the department.

Firefighters quickly discovered the fire, which was mostly extinguished by one fire sprinkler. The remaining fire was quickly extinguished and contained to the eleventh floor, according to the department.

Investigators determined that the fire was accidental in nature and started on the eleventh floor at a set of four clustered cubicle workspaces. The cause of the fire was electrical in nature, involving a junction box that routed power to the four workstations. The nature of the failure is not known at this time, according to the department.

There were no injuries reported, but damages as a result of the fire are estimated to be approximately $40,000, according to the department.

Apartment Building, Residential

Woodland, WA – Fire chief credits sprinkler system in saving occupant in apartment fire

A Woodland man is alive thanks to a sprinkler head in the kitchen of his apartment, fire officials said.  Firefighters were called to the La Casa De San Juan Diego Apartments, 125 S. Pekin Road, in Woodland at about 9:20 a.m. on Sunday for a fire alarm, Clark County Fire & Rescue division chief Tim Dawdy said.

A man had come home from work, put some grease on the stove to start cooking and fell asleep in the living room when the fire broke out, Dawdy said.  By the time crews arrived, however, the sprinkler had put out the fire, stopping it from spreading further than the kitchen, he said.  Firefighters helped clean up the mess when they got there.  Dawdy said that fires like this one have resulted in injury and even become deadly, but that thanks to this sprinkler head, the man in the residence wasn’t even displaced.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Bend, OR – Laundry fire at assisted living facility controlled by sprinkler system

A fire from the laundry room of the Mt. Bachelor Assisted Living and Memory Care facility in Bend on Friday morning caused 75 residents to be evacuated.  Bend Fire Department responded at 9:03 a.m., and found light smoke in the hallway coming from the laundry room.  Crews put out the fire and cleared the smoke, then allowed residents to return to their rooms.

All residents were evacuated prior to the fire department’s arrival, expect for several residents who are not able or strong enough to walk. Those residents sheltered in place on the upper floors of the facility.  The fire sprinkler in the laundry room controlled the spread of the fire, which was confined to the dryer unit, according to the fire department.  The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Office Building, Other Business

Reston, VA – Fire on 11th floor of commercial office building contained by sprinkler system

A two-alarm fire Sunday morning on the 11th floor of a building in the 12000 block of Sunset Hills Road has been contained, officials say.  The fire started in a cubicle, Deputy Chief Dan Shaw said.  “Upon arrival, [firefighters] found a working fire on the 11th floor,” he said. “The fire was being contained by a sprinkler system that had successfully activated.”  Units from Fairfax County Fire and Rescue stations 4 and 36 responded. The second alarm was sounded for resources, Shaw said.  The cause of the fire remains under investigation. We will provide more information when it becomes available.

Hotel / Restaurant, Restaurant

Portland, ME – Sprinkler system activates to help control restaurant fire

The Portland Fire Department says a fire broke out at the 576 Congress Street location of the pizza chain, Otto’s, on Sunday, August 20.  Crews arrived on scene around 10 a.m. after an oven fire spread into the duct work. The building’s sprinkler system went off but the restaurant has smoke and water damage.  Congress Street was shut down for an hour on Sunday but reopened by 11:00 a.m.  eputy Chief Terry Walsh expects that Otto’s will remain closed for an unknown amount of time.

Athletic Club/Sports Facility, Other Business

Richmond, VA – Sprinklers protect country club’s interior after fire breaks out on roof

A roofing company working without a required permit sparked a fire last Friday by using a torch to seal some materials on the roof of the Westhampton Clubhouse at the Country Club of Virginia, Richmond fire officials said.

The company, Hermitage Roofing Inc., did not obtain a permit from the Richmond Fire Department to conduct “hot work” on the clubhouse roof as required by law, said Richmond Fire Marshal David Creasy Sr. The company was cited for violating the Virginia Statewide Fire Prevention Code and issued a summons, Creasy said.

Contractors are required to “come in and tell us what they are doing” to secure a permit to do such work, Creasy said. “Sometimes we perform a site visit with something like this,” he added.In addition, Creasy said the fire department’s response was delayed because roofing company workers attempted — unsuccessfully — to extinguish the fire once it started before calling the fire department.

“The workers tried to put it out for several minutes with a garden hose, and so that didn’t help things for us at all,” Creasy said. “Good intentions, but when that kind of stuff happens people need to call us. Even if we get there and it’s out, at least we were there and we could help look for hidden fire.”

The fire was “in a difficult place to get to, but what really helped us in getting the fire out was a couple of sprinkler heads activated and stopped the fire’s spread in part of the building,” Creasy added. “And then our guys and girls opened up the roof so we could get to the roof area and make sure that we cut out any fire extension.”

The fire damage was “all up high,” Creasy said, but the clubhouse’s dining and lounge area sustained substantial smoke and water damage.

“You had a lot of smoke that got into the building, and the smoke traveled farther than the water and, of course, the fire,” he said. “So there may be some painting of walls (that will be required) in a much wider area of the building than any of the water damage.”

Creasy said it would be difficult to estimate the total monetary damage.

City firefighters were called at 10:44 a.m. Friday, and the first units to arrive found flames coming from a portion of the clubhouse roof. As crews worked to extinguish that fire, additional units arrived and found fire inside the building as well.

A second alarm was sounded at 11:13 a.m., primarily to get additional personnel on the scene to relieve crews because of the heat. The fire was marked under control at 11:34 a.m.

Other-Government/Military

Washington, D.C. – Fire at The Smithsonian Castle contained by sprinkler system

The Smithsonian Castle caught fire and has been evacuated, the D.C. fire department says. A fire broke out on the third floor of the towering, historic building on the National Mall, at 1000 Jefferson Drive SW. The fire was contained by sprinklers and no one is reported to have been hurt, the fire department said about noon Wednesday. It occurred in a non-public area, Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas said.

The castle is closed for the rest of Wednesday as the area is cleaned. The fire what accidental and “electrical in nature,” the fire department said in an update. The castle, also known as the Smithsonian Institution Building, is home to the Smithsonian Institution’s administrative offices and information center. It was completed in 1855 and has items from the collections of each Smithsonian museum. Information was not released immediately on whether any art or artifacts were damaged. The fire department initially said the area where the fire occurred had been under construction; they said in an update that it was not.

 

Apartment Building, Residential

Gwinnett, GA – Apartment sprinkler system puts out intentionally-set fire before fire department arrives

A Duluth woman is in jail after officials said she intentionally set her bed on fire in what is believed to be a domestic-related incident, fire officials said.

Eunok Yu, 38, was found lying “intoxicated” in the middle of Satellite Boulevard by a Gwinnett County battalion chief during the investigation, fire Capt. Tommy Rutledge said. She had soot on her clothes and hands.

Yu was booked into the Gwinnett County jail on a pedestrian under the influence in the roadway charge. She was later charged with first degree arson once investigators discovered she’d set her bed on fire, Rutledge said. She also has an Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold.

Authorities arrived to the Bridgewater Apartments in the 1500 block of Ridge Brook Trail about 11:20 a.m. Thursday after a call about an apartment fire in Building 400. No one was inside the unit at the time of the fire.

The sprinkler system put out the fire by the time authorities arrived, Rutledge said.

Officials were asked to remain on the scene due to the suspicious nature of the blaze.That’s when fire officials found Yu in the middle of the street and arrested her near the apartment complex. Police later determined Yu lived at the apartment with her husband, who was not home when she allegedly set the fire.

Yu admitted she set the same bed on fire in the same apartment a month ago, but Rutledge said fire investigators found no record of responding to the incident. They are investigating the claims.