For the period of Friday September 4, 2009 to Thursday September 10, 2009 the Niagara Falls Fire Department responded to 119 calls for assistance.
Friday September 4 – An early evening accident in the 1800 block of Pine Avenue sent a total of two people to Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center. Firefighters arrived and began by stabilizing the involved vehicles. Additional firefighters began to treat a total of three people who appeared to be injured. One involved individual declined transport to the hospital while the other two were transported with non-life threatening injuries.
Sunday September 6- A series of dumpster fires that occurred in the 3100 block of 9th Street have been labeled suspicious by Fire Investigators. Just after 6PM firefighters from the Ontario Avenue were dispatched for a fire in an apartment complex. On arrival firefighters were confronted with a well involved dumpster fire that was impinging on an adjacent structure. Firefighters were able to quickly get water to the seat of the fire but slight damage did occur to the siding of the structure. Within 20 minutes of the first alarm, firefighters were sent to another dumpster fire in the complex. This time fire damage was confined to the dumpster itself. Fire Investigators are continuing to investigate each of these fires.
Wednesday September 9 – A resident of a high rise residential building narrowly escaped serious injury when a flash fire erupted in their apartment. At 10:02 AM firefighters were sent to the 700 block of 10th Street for reported automatic alarm activation. Upon reaching the fire floor, firefighters encountered a small amount of smoke accompanied by a burning smell. Further investigation found that the sprinkler system had activated and extinguished the fire. Apparently the resident was in the process of spray painting in their apartment when the spray can suddenly stopped working. In an attempt to extract the remaining paint from the can the resident used a can opener to pierce the container. This resulted in a sudden release of the flammable propellant which came into contact with a nearby source of ignition. The result was a flash fire that caused the sprinkler to activate and extinguish the fire. Firefighters spent the next hour removing water from the building and working with building management to restore the sprinkler system.
