Category Archives: Apartment Building

Fire sprinklers save apartment and surrounding businesses (Harrisonburg, VA)

A kitchen fire that began in an apartment Wednesday evening was eliminated by the unit’s fire sprinkler system. According to Harrisonburg Deputy Fire Marshall Arthur Miller, “If the sprinkler system wouldn’t have been there, the consequences today would have been much more extreme. Not only in the loss of property and the interruption of business, but you’ve got fire fighters who are put in more of an extreme risk, fighting a more serious fire.”

No injuries were reported from this incident.

Sprinkler system, Firefighters save woman from apartment fire (Kent, WA)

Kent firefighters rescued a woman following an apartment fire at about 8:30 p.m. Monday in the 24000 block of 104th Avenue Southeast.  The fire was controlled by a sprinkler system which had been retrofitted into the building approximately five years ago.  When they entered the apartment, they found the occupant unable to escape on her own. The cause of the fire was cigarettes improperly discarded in a container that caught fire and spread to the apartment’s carpeting, according to fire investigators.  No one else was injured. 

According to firefighters at the scene, the outcome of this fire could have been tragic if there had not been a sprinkler system.

Single fire sprinkler stops apartment fire (Onalaska, WI)

An early morning fire brought both fire and police crews to an apartment building. Police crews helped to evacuate a woman from the building while fire crews entered the premises to put out the blaze. Firefighters found that a single fire sprinkler had put out the fire, causing minimal damage to the apartment.

Onalaska Assistant Fire Chief Troy Gudie said, “This is a perfect example of the life safety benefits of a residential sprinkler system. The single spinkler head quickly activated extingishing the fire while at the same time it activated the buildings fire alarm notifying residents to evacuate.”

Apartment fire eliminated by fire sprinklers (Cranston, RI)

Fire sprinklers quickly extinguished the fire that broke out on the sixth floor of an apartment building. No injuries were reported. ***Blog Editor’s Note – Please let us know what you think of the coverage by WPRI.com and journalist John Mitchell, who focused on water damage rather than the lives and property saved by the automatic fire sprinkler system. ***

Fire sprinklers contain apartment fire (Charleston, SC)

After a cooking fire broke out in an apartment in downtown Charleston, the resident tried to douse it without success. The unit’s fire sprinkler was then triggered and kept the fire in check until fire crews arrived to put out the remaining flames. 


Two structural fires are controlled by fire sprinklers (McKinney, TX)

Two fires that occurred recently had two items in common — fire sprinklers were in place and minimal structural damage occurred. The first fire, which took place in an apartment kitchen, was contained by a single fire sprinkler. A dry cleaning store sustained the other fire after business hours, and two fire sprinklers helped to control the fire until fire crews came. Fire Marshall Andrew Barr further emphasized fire sprinklers value when he said, “These two successful sprinkler saves demonstrate the effectiveness of automatic fire sprinkler systems in two very different environments – an apartment complex and a commercial building. Had a sprinkler system, or automatic fire suppression system, not been present in either building, the outcome may have been very different.”