Tag Archives: Texas

Residential, Residential High Rise

Austin, TX – Sprinkler system keeps high-rise fire under control until fire crews arrive

Firefighters knocked down a high-rise fire in downtown Austin early Thursday morning.

The Austin Fire Department says it started around 3 a.m. from improperly discarded smoking material in an apartment at 901 West 9th Street, just a few blocks north of Whole Foods Market.

Austin Fire reports the sprinkler system kept it under control until they got there.

ATCEMS transported one person to the hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation.

In total, three people are displaced.

One apartment has fire and water damage; another has water damage.

Apartment Building, Residential

McKinney, TX – Sprinkler system activated for kitchen fire at apartment complex; No injuries reported

The McKinney Fire Department (MFD) responded to a report of a water flow alarm at the Soho Parkway Apartments on Saturday.

Firefighters arrived to find that a fire sprinkler in the kitchen activated and successfully extinguished a fire – keeping the flames from spreading to the rest of the apartment. There were no injuries reported and damage was limited to the area around the stove.

Apartment Building, Residential

McKinney, TX – Sprinkler system activated for cooking fire at apartment complex

The McKinney Fire Department responded to a structure fire call at the Mason Apartments located at 1300 Eldorado Pkwy on Saturday.

Firefighters arrived to find that three fire sprinklers had been set off by a cooking fire on the stovetop. The fire sprinklers did their job by containing and extinguishing the flames.

One occupant was transported as a precaution and damage was limited to a single apartment.

“That this fire set off three fire sprinklers shows how quickly the fire was spreading,” said Merit Ossian, Public Information Officer and Education Coordinator. “Luckily, this apartment had sprinklers, or this could have been much worse.”

Primary / Secondary School, School / University

El Paso, TX – Sprinkler system activated for arson fire at school; No injuries reported

The Ysleta Independent School District is working with police investigators after footage of Sunday night’s fire was at Pebble Hills Elementary school circulated on social media.

Around 7:15 p.m. Sunday, fire crews responded to the fire.

Smoke was reportedly coming out of the school building and the fire alarms were activated, according to EPFD spokesman Enrique Duenas-Aguilar.

A small fire was found inside a room at the school.

The sprinkler system inside contained the fire from spreading, according to Duenas-Aguilar.

No injuries were reported.

Footage taken of individuals running out of the school surfaced on social media.

Footage of a table inside the school on fire was captured as well.

KFOX14 spoke to Pebble Hills Elementary school parents regarding the incident.

The majority of parents were concerned with how the students were able to get inside and expressed concern over the safety of the campus.

“My big concern is how they got in the building, because I thought the doors were closed and locked so that kind of scares me a little bit about my kids safety,” said Naomi Fierro.

Another parent said students should be held accountable and their discipline should begin at home.

“For one, I think it starts at home, if the kids are acting up this way I think the parents need to maybe tighten the grip on their kids or just their parenting styles need to change, maybe the kids are hanging out with the wrong crowd,” said Emily Ray.

Glen Cove Elementary School was also vandalized on Sunday.

El Paso police are also looking into that crime.

Heavy vandalism in some classrooms and hallways, and windows were damaged, according to Ysleta ISD.

The school was able to open Monday for instruction.

It’s unknown at this time if the vandalism and fire are related.

Hotel / Restaurant, Restaurant

San Antonio, TX – Sprinkler system activated for arson fire at former restaurant

San Antonio fire officials say they believe someone deliberately set fire to a former restaurant on the northwest side of the city early Friday morning.

The fire broke out around 1 am at Joe’s Crab Shack in the 4700 block of Northwest Loop 410 near Babcock Road.

According to fire authorities, a San Antonio police officer happened to be driving a car, saw the smoke and called. Upon arrival, firefighters found a fire inside the building.

Officials say someone seems to have thrown a Molotov cocktail through the window and triggered the sprinkler system. The sprinkler system has put out most of the fire.

The restaurant was closed and boarded, so no one was inside and no other nearby building was threatened by fire.

Firefighters said this was the second time a suspicious fire had broke out in a building within the last few months.

Currently, investigators have not been arrested.

Residential, Residential High Rise

Houston, TX – Sprinkler system activated for high-rise apartment building fire; No injuries reported

WHAT: High-rise apartment building fire

WHEN: November 9, 2021 at 11:27 a.m.

WHERE: 7575 Bellaire, 77036

INJURIES: No reported injuries.

PROPERTY SAVED: $45 thousand in estimated property saved.

DAMAGE: $5 thousand in estimated damage.

CAUSE: Unintentional – heat source too close to combustible.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Firefighters arrived on scene within six minutes to find a fire near a trash chute in the maintenance area on the sixth floor of a high-rise apartment building. Paper goods were placed near an electrical plug which appeared to have started the fire. The fire was kept in-check by a fire sprinkler head until HFD arrived on scene. Firefighters from Stations 21, 28, 68, 83, 10, 60, 73, 51, 37 and 57 responded to this incident.

Apartment Building, Residential

College Station, TX – Sprinkler system activated for fire at apartment complex; NO injuries reported

Residents in three units of a College Station apartment complex were relocated following a fire Monday afternoon.

College Station fire investigators found an electric skateboard battery that blew up while it was being charged.

CSFD responding to a smoke detector alert at The Zone complex found sprinklers had turned on and kept the fire from going full blown.

Firefighters found on the third floor heavy smoke and arcing electrical equipment that was shut down.

No one was injured, and the damage came from water from the sprinkler system.

Apartment Building, Residential

Wylie, TX – Fire at apartment building contained by sprinkler system

An apartment building in Wylie is damaged after a fire on Wednesday morning.

According to the Wylie Fire Department, the incident occurred at 1315 West Brown Street at approximately 4:10 a.m.

Officials said a three story apartment building had smoke showing on the third floor.

The sprinkler system was able to suppress the blaze before firefighters could arrive on the scene, officials said.

According to officials, cats were evacuated from the third floor unit, and the second floor unit sustained water damage.

Officials said the attic and roof were unharmed.

Athletic Club/Sports Facility, Other Business

The Woodlands, TX – Commercial dryer fire at fitness center controlled by sprinkler system; No injuries reported

At approximately 8:30pm on September 10th, 2021, South Montgomery County Firefighters (Montgomery County ESD #8), were dispatched to reports of a fire alarm at the L.A. Fitness Signature Club located at 3570 Harmony Commons Drive. The first Fire Engine arrived in just minutes, reporting smoke in the building and a water flow alarm. The crew entered the building and determined that a fire had broken out in a commercial dryer in the club’s laundry room, but that a single fire sprinkler head had activated and controlled the fire before it could spread.

At the time of the fire, approximately 50 customers and employees were in the building when the fire started. Although the fire started in the un-occupied laundry room, they were able to escape unharmed when the alarm sounded.

The building’s fire sprinkler system was installed in 2018 by Interactive Fire Control Inc and inspected by MCESD 8 Fire Inspectors working hand in hand with the Montgomery County Fire Marshal’s Office. The MCFMO and MCESD #8 work together under an inter-local agreement to enforce the County Fire Code and insure the safety of residents and visitors.

The Montgomery County Commissioner’s Court first adopted a County-wide Fire Code in 2008 after a series of commercial fires damaged or destroyed several businesses in our community. Since that time, MCFMO personnel have reviewed building plans on over 100 million square feet of new construction projects and along with our partners, conduct thousands of inspections annually.

Manufacturing, Paper Mill / Saw Mill

Corpus Christi, TX – Sprinkler system activated for fire at paper company

Firefighters were called out to the Gulf Coast Paper Company Warehouse around 6:45 p.m. Sunday after several reports made to 911.

Fire crews saw smoke coming from the building when they arrived at the scene and quickly made their way inside.

“With this being a paper company with a fire of that magnitude certainly the lead time between fire and smoke it certainly could’ve gotten a whole lot worse there’s a lot of fire load inside and the sprinkler system certainly saved the day today,” said Battalion Chief David Saenz.  

The building has some water and fire damage, and officials say they will be investigating the actual cause of that blaze.