May 29, 2026 By Mike Jones 3 min read

A fire at the City Mission in Washington forced the evacuation of the entire campus and its nearly 200 residents Friday morning, although the blaze was contained quickly by the shelter’s upgraded sprinkler system, minimizing the damage.

City firefighters were called to the sprawling shelter on West Beau Street – nearly directly across from the fire house – shortly after 7:30 a.m. for a report of fire in the maintenance room near the dining hall.

But the shelter’s fire suppression system activated and was able to contain the blaze quickly before it could spread.

“All of our systems worked with fire suppression,” said Jim Johnston, who is the safety lead for the City Mission. “Basically, no damage, just a lot of smoke.”

While the fire appeared to be contained to the maintenance room, smoke wafted elsewhere in the campus, including common areas such as the dining hall and sanctuary. Washington firefighters, who were assisted at the scene by crews from South Strabane and North Strabane townships, could be seen using fans in an attempt to air out the buildings.

City Mission President and CEO Diana Irey Vaughan said the organization’s evacuation plan went well and all 170 residents were able to quickly leave the building with no injuries reported. Many of the residents could be seen standing outside on the sidewalk along West Beau Street while awaiting instructions on where to go while the campus was cleared of the smoke.

Washington fire Chief Chris Richer could be seen briefing Irey Vaughan and other City Mission officials on the rear side of the campus. Richer said the fire was caused by lithium ion batteries that were charging in the maintenance room, and he ruled the blaze accidental.

“Unfortunately, that’s a common occurrence nowadays,” he said of lithium batteries catching fire.

He praised the organization for upgrading its sprinkler system, which extinguished much of the fire as crews arrived to finish the job. Richer said there was some minor smoke and water damage, but people should be able to quickly return to the dormitories.

“The City Mission did a great job in investing in their fire protection system,” Richer said.

The emergency comes nearly 11 years to the day after a larger fire heavily damaged the campus, making several areas uninhabitable or unusable. The fire that occurred June 9, 2015, started in the kitchen and spread through the men’s dormitories, medical clinic and chapel.

Since then, the City Mission has expanded and improved many areas of its campus. The area where the fire occurred Friday was one of the rebuilt parts of the shelter, so the upgraded fire suppression system did its job and likely prevented more wide-ranging damage, Johnston said.

“All of our systems worked well,” Johnston said. “Unfortunately, we had to use it.”