A fire in a third floor apartment would set off sprinklers leading to a ceiling collapse and flood damage to the studio facility of iHeartMedia Dayton OH below it on Thursday morning.
iHeartMedia Dayton SVP/Programming and “Mix 107.7” WMMX morning host Jeff Stevens told the Dayton Daily News that the fire alarm went off around 9:50am followed by a response from the facility’s sprinkler system, ““Not 30 seconds later, I hear ‘drip, drip, drip’ over in the corner … then 10 seconds later, water is streaming down our windows on the outside, facing Fourth Street. ust gushing. I said, ‘OK, that’s definitely not good.’ I ran back into the studio, and literally, it looks like a tropical forest on top of our control board, just pouring rain”
The water from the sprinklers would lead to the ceiling to collapse in the studios with the Dayton Fire Department estimating $200,000 in equipment damage to three of the four studios in the facility. The company has already assembled a temporary studio in another part of the Dayton Arcade complex where they are housed where WMMX’s morning show originated today.
Brandon Charles
Wow, it literally sounds like a rain storm in the studio. That’s insane! IHeart, however is uniquely positioned for remote broadcasting, which is one of the advantages they have over the smaller operators who would be in a similar situation. I suppose starting the show with we didn’t start the fire as a good idea, having a benefit for the firefighters is a better one. This is one of those reminders that we serve service people and not ourselves.