Apartment Building, Residential Kenosha, WI – Apartment dryer fire suppressed by automatic sprinkler system; No injuries reported November 30, 2017 viking210 A dryer fire set off sprinklers at a Kenosha apartment complex which led to damage in several units Monday afternoon. The Kenosha Fire Department was called to Kenosha Commons, 5502 60th St., around 1 p.m. Battalion Chief Matthew Haerter said the fire was inside a dryer, eventually breaking out and spreading into the laundry room of a second-floor apartment. “Once it did enter the room, it came into contact with a sprinkler head, which set off the apartment’s sprinkler system due to the heat. It suppressed the fire,” Haerter said. The apartment was filled with smoke from the fire and the action of the sprinkler system extinguishing it. Four occupants in the affected apartment evacuated with no injuries. The department did evacuate multiple tenants within the building, and also sheltered in place some tenants who had mobility issues to keep them safe. The Red Cross worked to find shelter for less than a dozen displaced residents. The total affected was not immediately known as the Red Cross was working with building management directly, Haerter said. At least four apartments were affected by the fire itself or water damage below the apartment where the dryer was located. “This is the second sprinkler-suppressed fire within a week for the department, with the last at Virginia Towers,” Haerter noted. “It shows that it obviously helps us to have working sprinkler systems which can be used in extinguishing a fire.” No one was reported injured during the incident.
