** No Media Coverage – Fire Department Reported **

Date: September 13, 2018
Time: 20:53
Location: 218 First Avenue, Sterling, Illinois
Property: Lawrence Lofts – 5 story residential structure
Sprinklers Activated: 1

Event details:
Dispatched to a water flow alarm at five-story residential structure. Upon investigation, found a fire had occurred in a bathroom in a 4th floor unit.   Fire had been extinguished by the sprinkler system.

This is a 20-unit apartment building with 5 floors above the Whiteside County East Courthouse.  Two courtrooms all open for business the next day.  “If not for sprinkler, life and property would have been lost.”

*Reported by Gary Cook, Fire Chief, Sterling, IL