Thursday, January 12, 2012

Yuma AZ - Apartment, garage fires quickly controlled

Apartment, garage fires quickly controlled

Two fires were quickly extinguished in Yuma Tuesday morning, thanks to quick actions and an automatic fire sprinkler system.

In the first fire, which happened shortly before 7 a.m., Yuma firefighters responded to the 3100 block of West 16th Street for a report of an alarm sounding and the smell of smoke at an apartment complex. The fire, however, had been contained and extinguished by the building's automatic fire sprinkler system before firefighters arrived on scene.

“Automatic fire sprinkler systems do save lives and protect property, and today it did what it was designed to do,” said Fire Inspector Kayla Holiman of the Yuma Fire Department.

Holiman said firefighters remained on scene to ensure sure the fire had been completely extinguished and turned off the water to the fire sprinklers.

All of the occupants, three adults and one child, were able to get out of the apartment safely when the fire alarm sounded. Holiman added that one of the adults, however, was in the bedroom at the time of the fire and was treated on scene by YFD paramedics for a small burn, but refused transport to the hospital. Holiman said the cause of this fire is currently under investigation.

Then at about 7:36 a.m., while firefighters were still on scene at the apartment complex, a garage fire was reported in the 6200 block of East 46th Lane. Once on scene, firefighters found that a small fire in the garage of a home had been extinguished by two City of Yuma Utilities Department employees.

Holiman said the two men had been filling up the water tank on their utility truck when they noticed smoke coming from the garage. She said they used hose lines connected to their water tank and a portable fire extinguisher truck to put the fire out. 

“They happened to have a truck that had water and a hose, and one of the men had previous firefighting experience,” Holiman said. “They were in the right place at the right time and were able to put it out safely and effectively before we got there.”

Holiman said the city employees' quick actions kept the fire from spreading, which minimized the damage to the residence. There were two adults and two children home at the time of the fire. No one was injured.

The cause of this fire was accidental, Holiman said, and was caused by the careless discard of smoking materials — cigarette butts.

James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854. Find him on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/YSJamesGilbert or on Twitter @YSJamesGilbert.

A fire in the bedroom of a Yuma apartment was put out by the building's automatic fire sprinkler system, while two quick-acting City of Yuma employee used hose lines connected to a water tank on their utility truck to put out a garage fire, in two seperate incidents on Tuesday morning that happened within 40 minutes of one another.

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Read more: http://www.yumasun.com/articles/fire-75838-holiman-yuma.html#ixzz1jJ7mdqTm

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