Tag Archives: South Dakota

Apartment Building, Residential

Sioux Falls, SD – Sprinkler system activated for apartment fire; No injuries reported

Sioux Falls Fire Rescue is looking into an apartment fire Sunday evening.

The incident happened at 4800 East. 54th Street.

The first units spotted smoke in an apartment. Firefighters located the fire in a third story apartment.

The sprinkler system activated and contained the fire to a small area.

No one was hurt.

Below is the news release from SFFR.

On Sunday, March 20, 2022, at 6:05 PM Sioux Falls Fire Rescue responded to a fire alarm activation at 4800 E. 54th Street.

The first arriving unit discovered an apartment building with light smoke on the third floor, and the incident was upgraded to a structure fire. A fire was located in a third story apartment, with no residents present in the apartment. Other residents from the building had exited. The sprinkler system in the apartment had activated and contained the fire to a small area. The fire was quickly and completely extinguished, and the building was cleared of smoke. No injuries were reported, and several residents were displaced.

Sioux Falls Fire Rescue responded with 4 fire trucks, 3 support vehicles, and 21 personnel. Sioux Falls Fire Rescue was assisted by Metro Communications, Sioux Falls Police Department, Patient Care EMS, and Mid-American Energy.

Sioux Falls Fire Rescue would like to remind everyone to test their smoke and CO detectors on a monthly basis.

Government/Military, Prison / Jail

Sioux Falls, SD – Fire inside state penitentiary carpentry shop put out by fire sprinklers; No injuries reported

A portion of the South Dakota State penitentiary was damaged by a fire Friday night.

Authorities were called to the carpentry shop in the penitentiary at 10 p.m. after prison staff noticed the fire on security cameras, according to scanner traffic. 

Staff responding to the fire encountered smoke, and the fire department was called, according to a release from the Department of Corrections.

The Sioux Falls Fire Department and a sprinkler system extinguished the blaze by 10:45 p.m., the release said. No staff or inmates were in the shop at the time of the fire and there were no injuries. 

The carpentry shop suffered fire and smoke damage, but the amount of damage hasn’t been determined, the release stated.

The carpentry shop is part of Pheasantland Industries, which provides work opportunities and job skills for state prison inmates and makes road signs, customized wooden furniture and printed products.  

Hotel / Motel, Hotel / Restaurant

Hartford, SD – Hotel fire contained to thrid floor thanks to sprinkler system; No injuries reported

No one was injured in a fire at the AmericInn hotel in Hartford Thursday morning, authorities say.

Crews responded around 10 a.m. to the AmericInn at 1031 S. Diamond Circle for a structure fire, said Todd Lowe, the incident commander for the Hartford Fire Department. The Hartford Fire Department was assisted by eight other agencies, including Tea, Humboldt, Colton and Sioux Falls Fire Rescue. 

While a sprinkler system helped contain the fire, everyone was evacuated from the building by the time agencies responded.

The fire was contained to the third floor, which sustained fire and smoke damage.

The state fire marshal is responding to the incident and investigating the cause of the fire. Lowe did not release where the fire started.

Authorities do not have an estimate on the total amount of damage to the hotel yet.

Primary / Secondary School, School / University

Rapid City, SD – Kitchen fire at elementary school extinguished by fire sprinkler system; No injuries reported

The Rapid City Fire Department was called to General Beadle Elementary located at 10 Van Buren Street for an automatic fire alarm around noon today.

As the crew from Truck 1 was arriving on scene, Pennington County 9-1-1 dispatch advised that a caller was reporting an active fire in the kitchen. A full first alarm was called that included additional units from Station 1 as well as Stations 3 and 7.

When Truck 1 was inside, they found that there had been a fire on the stove in the kitchen. The fire had been extinguished by the commercial hood system as well as a single sprinkler head from the fire sprinkler system.

The full first alarm system was canceled while Truck 1 remained on-scene.

The building was occupied at the time of the fire by Rapid City Area Schools personnel that were making and distributing lunches. The Rapid City Community Health Office was also open and operating during the time of the fire. No injuries were reported and occupants safely and quickly evacuated.

The fire was contained to the stove area while smoke was quickly cleared by firefighters who also assisted with the clean-up of water from the sprinkler system, and was determined to be an accident by an investigator from the Rapid City Fire Department.

Boxes being used for lunch distribution by the stove caught fire and were quickly extinguished by the sprinkler and hood systems. The fire shouldn’t negatively impact ongoing lunch distribution.

“The sprinkler system did exactly what it was designed to do”, said Lt. Brian Staton with the Rapid City Fire Department’s Fire and Life Safety Division. “Only the number of heads needed to put the fire out were activated. Instead of dealing with a big fire, we’re squeegeeing up water”.

The Rapid City Fire Department wants to remind everyone that it advocates for fire sprinkler protection, especially with large, public buildings.

Hospital/Care Facility, Hospital/Medical Clinic

Sioux Falls, SD – Equipment fire at hospital extinguished by fire sprinkler; No injuries reported

Authorities say a small equipment fire at a Sanford Hospital building in Sioux Falls forced staff to temporarily move some patients to a different part of the building.

The fire broke out around 11 p.m. near the radiology department on the ground floor of the medical center.

According to Sioux Falls Fire Rescue, an equipment maintenance cart started on fire, but it was extinguished by a sprinkler before firefighters arrived.

A Sanford spokesperson said patients were briefly moved from the emergency department and The Birth Place while firefighters evaluated the situation. Once the smoke in the air had been cleared, patients were returned to their rooms.

No one was hurt during the incident.

Sanford said its fire response worked “as designed.” The spokesperson said patients will not experience any disruptions due to the incident.

Manufacturing, Other - Manufacturing

Brookings, SD – Fire sprinklers keep fire in check in paint booth at electronics company; No injuries reported

A fire at Daktronics wasn’t as bad as it could have been, thanks to sprinklers, according to Brookings Fire Chief Darrell Hartmann.

The fire department was called out at 9:04 a.m. Tuesday to the north side of building 2 at Daktronics, Hartmann said.

“It came in as a sprinkler discharge with alarm,” Hartmann said.

Employees were evacuated and reported that the problem was “in one of the paint booths, which it was,” he said.

“We got crews inside pretty quickly; assessed if we had any fire extension,” Hartmann said.

“The sprinklers kind of kept everything in check for us, which was great. It worked the way it’s designed,” he said.

Crews pulled some of the filter units that were smoldering and made sure the fire was out and things were cooling off, he said.

“Shut down the sprinkler to minimize any more water damage,” Hartmann said. 

Nobody was injured, he said.

“Daktronics did a wonderful job,” Hartmann said. “They got their personnel out, but they were there to assist the whole time.”

Fire crews cleared the scene at 9:54 a.m.

Apartment Building, Residential

Rapid City, SD – Single sprinkler head controls cooking fire from grill at apartment complex

A sprinkler system has again helped to extinguish a fire in a Rapid City apartment building.

When Rapid City firefighters responded to a report of a fire around 10 a.m. Sunday at 4226 Kateland St., they found light smoke and water flowing from an outside deck of the three-story apartment, according to a news release. A resident was cooking on a grill when a cooking fire broke out that was quickly controlled by the sprinkler head on the balcony. The building was not damaged.

This marks the sixth time since the beginning of the year that a sprinkler system has helped put out a fire in Rapid City, the news release says. Four of the incidents happened in apartment buildings, one was at a correctional facility and one was at a large commercial building. The most recent incident happened last Friday, when a sprinkler system helped put out a fire in a second-floor bedroom. 

Apartment Building, Residential

Rapid City, SD – Sprinkler system puts out mattress on fire at apartment; No injuries reported

 Two people were displaced following an apartment fire that broke out in Rapid City.

According to the Rapid City Fire Department (RCFD), the fire broke out around 2 p.m. Sunday inside the bedroom of one of the Palms Apartments in the 700 block of Flormann Street, across the street from Safeway on Mount Rushmore Road.

Jim Bussell, public information officer for the RCFD told KOTA that when firefighters responded, they saw a mattress was on fire.

He confirmed the sprinkler inside the bedroom put the fire out.

Bussell said 30 to 35 residents live in the building and “all of them would have been at risk if it wasn’t for that sprinkler system.”

Both residents in the apartment made it out safely and there were no injuries reported.

In the meantime, American Red Cross is stepping in to help the displaced individuals.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Primary / Secondary School, School / University

Wanblee, SD – Fire at school contained by sprinkler system

Classes will resume as normal on Monday morning after a fire was contained by the sprinkler system at at Crazy Horse School in Wanblee.

According to Jon Schiedslaw with the Deputy Director of Oglala Sioux Tribe Emergency Management, just after 3 a.m. on Sunday, multiple agencies were called to Crazy Horse School a report of a fire. When crews arrived, they found a small grease fire in the kitchen which had been put out by the school’s sprinkler system.

Schiedslaw continued to say that the kitchen received light smoke damage, and that crews were able to air out the kitchen and mop up the fire. He said the incident will not effect school on Monday.

The Kadoka Volunteer Fire Department, the Martin Volunteer Fire Department, Oglala Sioux Tribe Emergency Management, and the Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety all responded to the call.

Other Business

Sioux Falls, SD – Sprinkler system contains fire in building’s air handling equipment

No one was injured in a structure fire last Thursday morning in north Sioux Falls, according to a news release. Crews responded to a sprinkler system activation around 7:05 a.m. Thursday in the WestRock building at 100 E. Benson Road. A small fire was in the air handling equipment on the roof. Crews used an aerial ladder to access the roof and knock out the fire with a hose and control it within 10 minutes. The fire was started by an overheated electric motor on the air handling unit, according to the release. The fire damaged several hundred square feet of roofing material and caused light smoke inside the building. Activated sprinkler heads contained the fire until fire personnel arrived on scene. Workers were allowed back into the building within an hour of crews arriving on scene.