by Nicole Ethier - Jan. 4, 2010 01:36 PM
The Arizona Republic

A Scottsdale couple has been temporarily displaced after a kitchen fire got out of hand Sunday evening, officials said Monday.  The two residents of a condo complex located in the 7700 block of Main Street were cooking churros in their kitchen when some of the cooking
grease caught fire, according to Scottsdale Fire Department spokeswoman Lori Schmidt.  Firefighters responded, however the fire had already been doused by the unit's sprinkler system, according to Scottsdale Fire Marshal Jim Ford.

No one was injured but the kitchen had about $2,000 worth of damage, most of it from water from the sprinkler system.  Scottsdale enacted a home fire sprinkler ordinance in 1985, requiring all single family residences built after that year to be fully equipped with an approved fire sprinkler system.  More than half of the homes in Scottsdale now have the sprinkler systems, Schmidt said.  "It keeps our fires small, it keeps our impact small and gets our units back in service much quicker, keeping them available for the next response," Ford said. "That's exactly what it was designed to do."  Ford said had the sprinkler system not been in place, other units in the condo complex may have also been affected and the damage would have been more extensive.

 

 

Posted: 5:30 pm EST January 4, 2010Updated: 5:57 pm EST January 4, 2010

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -- Gwinnett Fire investigators said a woman is accused of setting her apartment of fire after a domestic dispute with her live-in boyfriend.  Tina Varela-Bailey, 30, of Norcross, was arrested by police in the early morning hours Monday.  Police and firefighters responded to the report of a dispute and fire on the 1000 block of Ivey Park Lane in Norcross, around 5 a.m. The fire was
contained to contents in a closet and was extinguished by the sprinkler system.  The fire caused minor damage to the closet and sent smoke throughout the unit.  Fire investigators are not releasing any specifics about how the fire was set, but did say that evidence indicated that Varela-Bailey intentionally caused the fire for reasons related to the domestic dispute.  Varela-Bailey was charged by fire investigators with one-count of first-degree Arson.  Varela-Bailey was already booked at the Gwinnett County Detention Center by police on the domestic charges, when the warrant was served by fire investigators.

 

 

January 4, 2010

By JENNIFER JOHNSON

The Park Ridge Fire Department is crediting a residential sprinkler system with saving a home -- and Christmas -- for a Park Ridge family
following a Dec. 23 fire.  A single sprinkler head extinguished much of the fire that began in the basement of a home on the 1000 block of South Peale Avenue, said Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Sorensen. Sorensen said the family was cooking at about 8:20 p.m. when they heard an alarm activate and initially believed it was a smoke alarm.  "When that wasn't it, they looked in the basement, saw there was a problem, and called 911 and evacuated the house," he said.  The sound they heard was actually the sprinkler system's water flow alarm, Sorensen explained.  The fire started in a storage bin where several electronic items were kept, Sorensen said. Luckily, the bin was located below the sprinkler head which activated and put out much of the fire.  Firefighters did extinguish some remaining "deep-seated fire," he said, but damage was minimal and no injuries were reported.  "The family was very fortunate that they were able to stay in their home for the holidays, and their losses were kept to a minimum due to the fire sprinkler system and quick actions by the fire department,"  Sorensen said.  "Even with aggressive fire fighting you could have easily lost the basement if there were not sprinklers," he added.  Since 2001, fire sprinklers have been required in all new construction in Park Ridge, including single family homes.  There are about 550 homes in the city that have sprinkler systems, according to the fire department.

 

 

January 5, 2010
Ames City, Virginia