The Yuma Fire Department said a sprinkler system stopped a fire in a local hotel. YFD said Monday shortly after 9:30 pm, an alarm was reported indicating a fire sprinkler activation at the Candlewood Suites Hotel, 2036 East Avenue 3E. Firefighters said arriving Yuma Fire Department personnel found the building being evacuated, with light smoke and water flowing from a room on the hotel’s second floor. It was determined that there had been a stove top fire and it had been extinguished by the fire sprinkler system. Firefighters confirmed the fire was out and it had not spread beyond the area of the stove.
YFD said the water flow to the sprinkler head was shut off and firefighters worked to ventilate the room and remove the smoke from the area. It was found that the room’s occupant had put a pan of cooking oil on the stove top to heat and had left the room. While they were gone, the oil overheated and ignited. The damage was limited to the immediate area of the stove, with the microwave above the stove starting to melt and catch fire at the time the sprinkler system activated. Had the fire not been extinguished by the fire sprinkler system, extensive damage to the room and other parts of the hotel would have occurred, as well as lives put in danger. This is the third commercial fire sprinkler save in less than a week!
YFD said fire sprinkler systems can keep fires from spreading and can also extinguish them. Fire spreads quickly and can double in size every minute. Even small fires can cause significant damage to property and endanger those nearby. Contrary to many Hollywood portrayals, only sprinkler heads directly exposed to the heat activate, not those in the rest of the room, building, or complex.
“Flame broiled” was taken to a whole new level on Friday afternoon after a kitchen fire at the Burger King on 1385 White Mountain Highway in North Conway forced the restaurant to be evacuated. The popular fast-food restaurant is expected to be closed for a few days.
“The fire occurred in the exhaust hood for the broilers that cook the hamburgers,” North Conway Fire Chief Pat Preece said, and when firefighters arrived on the scene, they were greeted by thick black clouds of smoke coming from the roof along with flames in the kitchen. Crews were able to use a hand line (hose) to extinguish the blaze.
Preece said the department was toned out at approximately 1:50 p.m. It was a First Alarm fire, which saw North Conway, Conway and Redstone fire departments respond to the scene while the Bartlett Fire Department covered the North Conway station.
“The crews did a real nice job of knocking it down pretty quickly,” Preece said, and added that a sprinkler head near the broiler went off, which also helped douse the fire.
Preece said the fire initially spread from the broiler into the ceiling and onto the roof near the exhaust pipe. The rubber membrane around the pipe also caught fire.
“The Burger King staff did a nice job of not waiting and calling 911 relatively quickly,” Preece said. “The initial call was that there was smoke in the ductwork. They evacuated the building; it was full of thick smoke.”
Preece said based on a preliminary observation, Burger King will be closed “for a couple of days,” in order to clean up and do repairs.
“There is some electrical wiring that needs to be done, and the hood system (for the broiler) needs to be redone,” he said. “It was a good job by everyone from the Burger King staff to the firefighters and Conway police, which handled traffic in a busy, busy parking lot.
You’ve got Burger King and CVS there along with people trying to cut through the lot to get to Eastman Road.”
Reporting on lives and property saved by fire sprinklers
