Apartment Building, Residential Prescott Valley, AZ – Sprinkler system credited with stopping potentially serious residential fire May 27, 2016 viking210 A sprinkler system is credited with extinguishing a potentially serious unattended kitchen fire on Friday, May 20, Central Arizona Fire Division Chief Rick Chase said. The fire started about 11 a.m., when fire crews were called to investigate an active sprinkler system in one unit of a two-story four-plex in the 4000 block of Viewpoint Drive. The residents were not home when the water began flowing but came home to find that it had turned on, Chase said. “What (firefighters) found was a box on the stove that had a bunch of food, trash and stuff in it and it had caught fire,” Chase said. “The sprinkler put it out.” Because the flames ignited when no one was home, he said, there was a possibility that a major fire could have resulted. Home sprinkler systems are a good idea, he added, and they don’t work as some people believe. “That’s kind of one of the myths that people have,” Chase said, “’I don’t want to flood my whole house,’ (but) only the sprinkler head where the heat activate it and pops that bulb is what activates. This head happened to be in the kitchen, closest to the stove, and was able to put it out. “The moral was that it prevented the fire from spreading.”
