Tag Archives: Morning (7am-12pm)

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.

 

Other / Not Specified, Other Business

Santa Clara, CA – Fire at trade show exhibit hall contained by sprinkler system; No injuries

A fire yesterday at the Flash Memory Summit in Santa Clara, Calif., has forced the closure of the show floor. The fire started about Tuesday morning in the Santa Clara convention center.

An overhead sprinkler contained the blaze.

According to a worker for the show floor infrastructure provider, the sprinkler ran for about an hour before workers discovered the mishap. The booth underneath the blaze was heavily damaged, and there was water damage to some of the surrounding booths.

No one was injured.

According to the worker, the cause of the fire was an overloaded power strip that booth workers left under a pile of paper brochures. The exhibits were scheduled to open at 4pm on Aug. 9 but remained closed. They are now scheduled to open at noon on Aug. 10.

Apartment Building, Residential

Ithaca, NY – Sprinkler system puts out apartment fire before fire department arrives

At around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, the Ithaca Fire Department was dispatched to a reported fire at 217 S. Cayuga Street “The Loft” apartment building.

Firefighters arrived on the scene minutes later to find the building’s sprinkler system flowing. They were told by a maintenance worker that there was a fire in the bedroom on the second floor. Crews immediately headed up to search for occupants and to confirm that the fire was out. Other firefighters worked to shut down the sprinkler system and ventilate smoke from the building.

Ithaca firefighters worked alongside building maintenance personnel to minimize the water damage to the fire apartment and those directly below. Occupants were displaced for about 45 minutes before they were allowed to return.

The Ithaca Police Department and Bangs Ambulance assisted at the scene. There were no injuries to occupants or firefighters.

The fire was determined to be caused when a combustible object made contact with a halogen lamp in the apartment. The Ithaca Fire Department reminds everyone that light bulbs, especially halogen bulbs, can get extremely hot. Always exercise caution when using them and keep flammable objects a safe distance away.

Apartment Building, Residential

Grand Forks, ND – No injuries in apartment blaze put out by sprinkler system

The Grand Forks Fire Department was dispatched to 8½ S. Third St. for a fire alarm at 9:09 a.m. last Wednesday, according to Battalion Chief Mike Sandry. A fire marshal was working to determine the cause of the fire Wednesday morning. Sandry said it appeared there had been a fire that was extinguished by the building’s sprinkler system in an apartment on the third floor.

Water had been coming through the floors in the building, dripping from third-floor apartments to second-floor apartments and into Trojan Promotions and True Colors, two businesses on the ground floor. By 9:45 a.m., the situation was under control and firefighters were mopping up water with squeegees. “We’ll see what the extent of the damage is and go from there,” Sandry said.

Duane Bundy lives on the third floor and said he heard the fire alarm shortly before 9 a.m. At first, he paid the noise little mind, but when it didn’t stop he went out to investigate. Water was flowing from the third to the second floor of the building, he said. Bundy decided to not go back to his apartment for his phone and was heading to a local business to call the fire department when he saw a police officer pull up, followed shortly by three fire engines. A four-year resident of the building, Bundy said he was concerned by not seeing any of his neighbors vacate their units. No injuries were reported in the incident.

College/University (on campus), School / University

Marquette, MI – Storage room fire in university science building extinguished with help from sprinkler system

The Marquette Fire Department was on scene at Northern Michigan University for about 3.5 hours today after being dispatched to a report of a fire on the third floor of the West Science Building. On arrival, NMU Public Safety confirmed a small fire in a third-floor storage room. The Marquette Fire Department supplemented the building standpipe system that had one sprinkler head activated. The fire suppression team made entry to office and quickly extinguished container involved. A third alarm page was called for manpower, and efforts to minimize water damage in the building started. After the scene was stabilized, NMU Public Safety and Maintenance Staff could enter the building to continue the work. The cause is under investigation.

MARQUETTE — Due to a fire that started in a chemistry storage room, the NMU New Science Building was evacuated, and has been shut down until further notice.

Around 8:30 this morning, a fire alarm located near the chemistry storage room went off. Though the Marquette Fire Department responded promptly, NMU spokesperson Derek Hall says that the fire suppression system installed in the building put out the fire very quickly.

Hall estimated between 50-60 students, staff, and faculty in the building at the time of the fire. Thankfully, everyone was evacuated safely.

Currently, fire officials are still securing the building before they can turn it back over to begin cleanup.

The fire department believes that the fire started in a garbage can in the chemical storage room.

Hall says that they have not yet been able to assess the damages, but are hoping to have the building back open by tomorrow.