A late-morning fire at a Barcelona Nut Co. warehouse in Southwest Baltimore was quickly extinguished Tuesday, but city emergency officials were concerned enough to warn residents near the 500 block of Fulton Ave. who had nut allergies.
“Although we were unclear as to the amount of peanuts burning, we felt that it was worth a warning out of an abundance of caution,” said Connor Scott, spokesman for the city’s Office of Emergency Management.
In the end, there was probably little risk, said Dr. Robert Wood, director of pediatric allergy and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. He said those allergic to peanuts would have to be in proximity to suffer a reaction.
“If you were just roasting peanuts you’d have to be within feet of the roasting, in the building,” Wood said. “In a fire, where there were larger volumes being burned, I supposed you’d be at risk within 40-50 yards, but that would probably be the extreme.”
The peanut dust would dissipate quickly in the air, he said, adding that no one has studied if burnt peanuts would pose more of a threat than roasted ones.
The fire did burn peanuts, which were in a roaster in the plant, confirmed Ed Roush, Barcelona’s quality manager. He said workers also vented the smoke during the fire, which was largely extinguished by the facility’s sprinkler system before fire crews arrived.
The firm’s employees were more at risk from the fire; three suffered non-life-threatening injuries — likely smoke-related — trying to put it out, Roush said. He and fire officials didn’t know what caused the fire, but Roush said he hopes to reopen the facility by Thursday or Friday.
The company, founded in 1924 by a Spanish immigrant, has been in the current location since 1986. It roasts and packages several kinds of nuts at the plant, which also packages other snack foods.
Longtime neighbors said they didn’t see much smoke and weren’t concerned about the peanuts, and didn’t know anyone close by with an allergy. Nancy Will, who once worked in the building, said it’s not often they even get a whiff of nuts, which is a far cry from years past when peanut oil would coat their cars.
“You’d turn the windshield wipers on and get a nice smear,” said her husband, Robert Wills, who was sitting on the steps of his Fulton Street house across from Barcelona.
A cooking fire early Monday morning at the Villas at Riverside showed the importance of having a fire sprinkler system, according to the City of Elko fire department. Deputy Chief Brian Burgess said the resident had fallen asleep while waiting for food to be prepared. The fire caused the sprinkler system to activate. There was minor damage to the microwave, stove and upper cabinets, said Burgess.
He said residents were evacuated for only an hour and the affected apartment was able to be occupied afterwards. It also had mild water damage. “Had this building been an unprotected building, the fire would have likely caused severe damage to the building, displacing all of the residents (and) threatening the lives of the occupants,” said Fire Marshal Joshua Carson, explaining the value and importance of the system.
Even though there was mild fire and water damage, it was far less than what would have been seen in a building without that system, he said. In addition, he stressed how the system salvaged the property and protected the residents. They were alerted by a unit smoke alarm and fire alarm system.
Carson explained this fire comes at a significant time. The Fire Prevention Picnic this past weekend showcased the dangers of cooking-related fires and the benefits of residential fire sprinklers. The latter was exhibited by a live fire demonstration at the picnic, said Carson. “Elko Fire Department is a huge advocate for residential fire sprinklers,” he said. “We hope we can soon protect all of our newly constructed residential use buildings with this lifesaving technology.”
A small fire in a commercial dryer early this morning at the Hampton Inn hotel on Interstate Drive kept the Cookeville Fire Department busy. The call came in around 6:40 a.m., and fire crews were on the scene until after 9 a.m., Lt. Benton Young said.
“At about the same time we got the call, a Cookeville police officer who was refueling at a gas station nearby on Jefferson Avenue noticed smoke coming from the hotel and responded to the location as well,” Lt. Young said.
When firefighters arrived on the scene, he said, smoke could be seen coming out the front lobby doors, all the way from the laundry room located farther back inside the building. Guests of the hotel were evacuated while firefighters assessed and responded to the situation.
“There was a lot of smoke. We had to use thermal cameras in the laundry room just to see to get to the source,” he said.
That source proved to be only one commercial dryer that appeared to have several mop heads drying inside it, firefighters reported.
The hotel’s sprinkler system activated when the dryer fire began to smoke, and the blaze was contained to that appliance.
After firefighters arrived, they worked quickly to extinguish the blaze.
“We didn’t have to put a whole lot of water on it to put it out, maybe 15 or 20 gallons,” Lt. Young said.
The tasks that followed, however, included resetting the fire alarm system, getting the abundance of smoke dissipated from the building and verifying that all of the hotel occupants were evacuated and accounted for. All four Cookeville stations responded to the scene.
No one was reported injured in the incident. Capt. Matt White said he expected the business to reopen later this morning following the incident.
A Goodwill Industries official is praising the sprinkler system after a fire broke out Wednesday morning at the Outlet & Donation Centre on White Oak Rd.
President and CEO of Goodwill Industries Michelle Quintyn tells AM980 when fire crews were called.
“At about 11 o’clock this morning, we had a small fire start in the back end of the building. Alarm went off, the one area of the sprinkler system went off, we evacuated the building, everyone got out safely,” she said. “We have had quite a bit of activity here today making sure that the fire is out, it’s a building full of textiles and all kinds of recyclable materials.”
A damage estimate and cause of the blaze could not be determined by the Fire Inspector on duty
Quintyn did, however, mention that the building was undergoing roof work
“The area that the fire occurred is more a warehousing area, it is not a production area. In that vicinity there was some roof work going on,” she said. “A sprinkler system is a good thing to have in a big building like this.”
Fire crews could also be seen inspecting tar machines near where the fire broke out.
Quintyn added that there were well over 200 people in the building at the time, many of them employees and some customers. No injuries have been reported.
An “over-pressurization” event led to a fire Saturday that damaged equipment and a section of the Pfizer Inc. manufacturing complex on Portage Road, a Pfizer spokeswoman said Tuesday. Kim Bencker, head of communications for Pfizer Global Supply, previously said no one was injured in the incident, but she could not provide more details.
The incident occurred about 10 a.m. Saturday in Building No. 335. “There appears to have been an over-pressurization event and a fire. The fire was immediately extinguished by the sprinkler in the area,” Bencker said Tuesday in an email response to questions.
The fire damaged equipment and caused “limited building damage,” she said. “No employees were in the area of the building where the incident occurred.” “Most of the building is operating normally, and Pfizer is investigating the cause of the incident,” Bencker said.
Kameron Jordan, Kalamazoo district coordinator for the Department of Environmental Quality, said a small fire in Building No. 335 was reported to the DEQ.
“Because of the possibility that water used to suppress the fire could have resulted in runoff of manganese and/or acetone compounds, the retention pond was tested,” he said. “Neither substance was found to be in excess of background levels of those compounds. A final report will be prepared, and no further response is required.”
Tanya Baker, of the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, said the incident was not reported to the state, but such reporting is not required in incidents when no employees were injured.
Stubbs Elementary School in Wilmington was evacuated after a small fire Monday morning, but the site will reopen Tuesday. Principal Jeffers Brown “will be notifying parents and staff of this decision,” Christina School District Public Information Officer Wendy Lapham said.
City fire crews were dispatched at 8:10 a.m. after sprinklers set off an automatic alarm, according to Battalion Chief James R. Jobes, the department’s public information officer. Firefighters found medium-heavy smoke on the second floor with water in the hallway, Jobes said. Crews that began searching the second floor with fire hoses found an activated sprinkler in one room, with the fire already out, he said.
Nearly 330 students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade were relocated from their school in the 1100 block of N. Pine St. to the nearby Howard High School of Technology in the 400 block of E. 12th St., Lapham said.
“Being right across the street, it worked out perfect,” she said.
Since school doesn’t start until 9 a.m, only teachers and other staff members were in the building, Lapham said.
Arriving buses were directed to the high school, she said, and students who walk were escorted there.
Water from the sprinkler reached adjoining rooms and leaked through the floor to classrooms below, he said.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Wilmington Fire Marshal’s Office.
Parents and concerned citizens may call the school at (302) 429-4175 for more information.
There was no immediate estimate of damage to the elementary school, built in 1953 and named for city native Dr. Frederick Douglass Stubbs, one of the country’s top thoracic surgeons.
Reporting on lives and property saved by fire sprinklers
