Design inside the addition designed by James Paris his partner the late Nolan Bingham of Paris/Bingham Partnership for the Columbus Fire Department, Central Fire Station 1, 1101 Jackson Street, Columbus, Indiana, Carla Clark | For The Republic
COLUMBUS, Ind. — Columbus firefighters were sent to Dorel Juvenile, 2525 State St., on a report of a fire in the building at 5:08 p.m. Monday.
Firefighters arrived on the scene to find that an evacuation of the building was in process, said Capt. Mike Wilson. As crews prepared to investigate the incident, representatives of Dorel advised firefighters that a lithium-ion battery had begun to smoke within an office space on the interior of the building.
An interior fire attack crew entered the building and found a large amount of smoke within the facility. Firefighters located the area where the lithium-ion battery was stored and reported that the building’s automatic sprinkler system had activated. Firefighters reported that a fire had occurred in the area of the battery but the fire was extinguished by the sprinkler system by the time firefighters reached the area involved. Firefighters located two additional lithium-ion batteries in that area and removed all three batteries to the exterior of the building.
After shutting down the water supply to the building’s sprinkler system, firefighters set up ventilation fans to aid in smoke removal from the interior of the building. Fire damage to the building was minor in the area where the fire occurred. The fire caused cosmetic damage to one wall near the origin but did not cause structural damage. Due to the activation of the sprinkler system, water damage to the area where the fire occurred was more significant. No damage estimate was provided. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. No injuries were reported at the scene.
