Tag Archives: Night (9pm-5am)

Apartment Building, Residential

Wilmington, NC – Fire department credits sprinkler system with extinguishing apartment balcony fire

A fire sprinkler was credited with confining a fire to a balcony, the Wilmington Fire Department said in a release.  A fire was reported on the balcony at 4940 Pepys Lane shortly after midnight Friday, possibly caused by fireworks, the release said. A sprinkler, activated over the balcony, extinguishing the fire.

“There were no injuries to any civilians or fire personnel reported,” the release said. “This one sprinkler head activation required less firefighters to be on scene mitigating a fire problem, saved a four-story, multi-family residential building and quite possibly saved human lives.”

Hotel / Motel, Hotel / Restaurant

Tampa, FL – Fire at Courtyard Marriott hotel limited by sprinkler system; No injuries reported

A fire forced guest and staff to evacuate a Tampa hotel. Tampa Fire Rescue responded to a fire at the Marriott Hotel located at 3805 W. Cypress Street on Thursday night. The fire started around 9:15 p.m. Firefighters said a flight attendant who was staying at the hotel started the heater/AC unit and it sparked. She immediately called 911 about the fire. “My husband and I were in there. We were watching TV and heard some commotion. I opened up the door and a lady was running down the call, everybody out!” said Yvonne Wesley Payne, a hotel guest. Firefighters said the third floor had water and smoke damage. The sprinkler system worked. Firefighters believe the cause of the fire was electrical/mechanical malfunction of the room heater. No one was hurt.

Hotel / Motel, Hotel / Restaurant

Brockton, MA – Sprinkler system keeps overnight hotel fire from spreading

A sprinkler system is being credited for averting a possible major fire or disaster at a downtown hotel early Friday morning. The Brockton Fire Department received a 911 call about 1 a.m. reporting there was an unknown fire in one of the rooms at the Elmcourt Hotel, at 33 West Elm St. When firefighters arrived, they learned that the sprinkler system had been activated on the fourth floor.

“The contents of the room, including the mattress, were on fire,” said fire Capt. Jeff Marchetti. “The sprinkler heads were flowing and kept the fire from spreading.”

The fire was caused by the careless disposal of smoking materials, the captain said.

The actual fire was contained to only the one room on the fourth floor. Firefighters had to tap into a standpipe system in the building to use a small amount of water to extinguish the parts of the fire that the sprinkler didn’t, Marchetti said.

The fire was extinguished about 12 minutes after the initial 911 call reporting it.

Although the fire was contained to one room, there was a large amount of water damage to multiple floors due to the sprinkler system, Marchetti said.

“Because of the water damage from the sprinkler heads flowing, they had to shut down power to some of the hotel,” he said.

The fire is estimated to have caused about $100,000 in damage, Marchetti said.

Fire officials said several people had to be relocated because they couldn’t stay in the rooms directly below where the fire occurred due to water damage.

But Chip Yannone, the owner of the Elmcourt, said everyone was able to stay in the hotel, some just had to switch rooms.

“We are fortunate enough to be able to keep everyone here,” he said.

Yannone said that insurance adjusters hadn’t been to the building as of late Friday morning and he wanted to wait for their investigation to be complete before discussing the possible damages.

Apartment Building, Residential

Cambridge, MA – No injuries in overnight apartment fire contained with help sprinkler system

A fast-moving fire in Cambridge could have been much worse if it wasn’t for the sprinkler system. Firefighters were called to a four-story apartment building at the corner Auburn and Magazine streets around 1 a.m. after flames broke out on a second floor porch. The fire then spread to two more buildings.

“I started hearing cracking and popping. We really didn’t think much of it and then I looked out my window and saw all these embers falling,”resident Andrew Colello told WBZ-TV.

“I hear a crash and there’s like a fireman knocking down my door, waking all my roommates up, getting us out of there.”

A total of 20 units were evacuated safely because the sprinklers helped contain the fire, acting Fire Chief Gerard Mahoney told reporters. No one was hurt. There’s no word yet on a cause.

The four-alarm fire came just days before the first anniversary of a massive 10-alarm fire on Berkshire Street in Cambridge. “This thankfully, had a far different outcome than that did. But we don’t like to see anybody displaced at any time, particularly in the holiday season,” Mahoney said. About 60 people were displaced in Thursday’s fire.

Manufacturing, Manufacturing Plant

Gaylord, MI – Overnight fire at plastic parts manufacturer controlled by sprinkler system

The Otsego County Fire Department responded to a fire at a business in Gaylord. Crews were called to Mayfair Plastics on Dickerson Road at 11:57 p.m. Sunday. The fire was contained to an area of plastic car parts near an electrical panel on the equipment. The fire was detected by an automatic alarm. The sprinkler system controlled the fire until the fire department arrived. No one was hurt and the fire was contained to a small area. According to someone who works at Mayfair Plastics, business is operating as normal.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Mt. Juliet, TN – No injuries in assisted living facility fire contained with help from sprinkler system

An assisted living facility in Mt. Juliet caught fire Friday, forcing residents to evacuate the building. Mt. Juliet Fire Department was called to Mt. Juliet Health Care in the 1600 block of N. Mt.Juliet Rd. around 9 p.m. Friday evening. Firefighters went in and found a room on fire. The firefighters quickly extinguished the fire. After the fire was put out, all residents at the facility were accounted for and no injuries were reported. Fire officials said the sprinkler system in the building was activated and that aided in containing the fire. The fire department said that no residents will be displaced. An investigation into what started the fire is ongoing.

Hospital/Care Facility, Hospital/Medical Clinic

Temecula, CA – Overnight fire at women’s health clinic extinguished by sprinkler system

A Temecula women’s clinic was damaged in a possible arson fire Wednesday, but no one was injured. Firefighters were called out just after 1 a.m. to a reported fire inside FPA Women’s Health at 41715 Winchester Road after an alarm company was alerted, according to officials. The fire was extinguished by the time crews arrived on scene, apparently by a sprinkler system at the location, officials said.

Department Store, Retail

Cedar Park, TX – Arson fire at Walmart suppressed by automatic sprinkler system

“Lots of black smoke just radiating from that area,” described Jackie Sinclair, who was inside Walmart early Wednesday morning as flames shot up to the ceiling. The fire happened at the store on 201 Walton Way in Cedar Park around 1:44 a.m. Sinclair posted video to Facebook of the flames, which appear to be in an aisle behind the watches and jewelry section. Cedar Park Fire Department says two separate fires were set inside, one near the apparel and another in the vacuum aisle. Police are investigating it as arson.

“How did this happen?” Sinclair says on the video. “Time to go — that’s a little too big for my taste.” Sinclair said she had just gotten off work and was stopping by Walmart to get some groceries and avoid the crowds. “That’s crazy, like I’ve never seen nothing like that before, so I didn’t really understand what was going on.”

Police do have a suspect who has been interviewed, but not arrested. Investigators say it is not a Walmart employee. “It is unusual, of course, I don’t know a lot of details of the motive right now,” explains Randle Blesing, fire marshal for the Cedar Park Fire Department. Blesing says three sprinkler heads went off, putting out most of the flames. Walmart employees evacuated the store. “Thirty seconds in, I was like in, I shot the video and I was out, I did not want to stay in there,” recalls Sinclair.

No one was hurt. The cause of the fire is still being investigated. The store will remain closed until further notice so staff can assess the damage. Walmart says employees at the Cedar Park store are being reassigned to nearby stores so they can still work and won’t lose any hours.

People have set fires in other Walmart stores before. A quick Google search turns up more than a dozen in the past few years. The damage can be expensive. Two years ago, fires in a West Virginia Walmart caused more than $2 million in losses. Police arrested and charged two 12-year-old boys for starting those fires.

Last year, a man lit a fireworks display on fire inside a Walmart in Phoenix. No one was hurt, but the store sustained several million dollars worth of water and fire damage. Police arrested a suspect a few months later and charged him with arson.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Granbury, TX – Laundry fire at senior living facility doused by sprinkler system

Automatic fire alarms began going off at around 9:30 p.m. last Sunday at the Lakestone Senior Living facility on Highway 377 in Granbury, according to city of Granbury Public Information Officer Bethany Warner.  The fire started in a dryer in the main laundry, Warner said. The building’s sprinkler system limited the fire to the dryer and there was minimal damage to the laundry room, she said. Residents were let back into the building about 15 to 20 minutes after evacuations began, she said.

Apartment Building, Residential

Rockville, MD – Sprinkler system activates to help contain apartment fire

A Thursday night fire in the walls of a Rockville apartment building was likely an accidental fire caused by smoking materials, said Pete Piringer, spokesman for Montgomery County Fire and Rescue.  The fire, at the Galvan apartments in the 1800 block of Chapman Avenue, started sometime before 5:30 p.m. Smoke on the third floor activated the sprinkler system, according to Piringer.  No one was injured by the fire.