Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential Roseburg, OR – Kitchen fire at retirement home is contained by sprinkler system February 25, 2016 viking210 A fire broke out at a Roseburg retirement home Monday morning, Roseburg Fire Department officials said. Around 7:30 a.m. Monday firefighters were dispatched to Linus Oakes Retirement Village on NW Van Pelt Blvd where they found the fire had been contained to the kitchen area of apartment #23 and extinguished by the building’s automatic sprinkler system. Officials say a wheelchair-bound resident fled the apartment before the sprinklers activated. Firefighters located the resident’s cat, which they removed to safety. Investigators say the fire was likely caused by the apartment’s 82-year-old resident, who was trying to remove a piece of bread that was stuck in her energized toaster. While probing the interior of the toaster with a fork she saw flames develop and spread to the wall of the kitchen, officials said. She initially tried to extinguish it by smothering it. Failing that, she left her apartment to alert management. Roseburg Fire Dept. reminds citizens to unplug appliances before working on them or contact a professional to investigate the cause of the problem. Energized toasters and other appliances pose a significant risk of electric shock and fire hazard if damaged or used improperly. Officials also noted the automatic sprinkler system in the apartment worked as designed, containing the fire damage to the kitchen area with the activation of just one sprinkler head. Although the apartment sustained some water damage from the sprinkler, the smoke and fire damage throughout the rest of the building was minimized substantially, officials said, saving both the structure and lives.
