A kitchen fire yesterday at the Smith’s employee housing could have been much worse if not for a built-in sprinkler system. According to Teton County Fire Marshal Cathy Clay, Jackson Hole Fire/EMS was summoned to the scene and upon arrival, crews discovered that a fire sprinkler had quickly extinguished the fire which involvednan unattended cooking pan. Clay says the event demonstrates the effectiveness of residential fire sprinkler.
Clay says the fire crews placed a stopper in the sprinkler head to help control the water flow once it was determined the fire was completely out, and by the afternoon, the water had been cleaned up and the sprinkler system put back into service. All 40 employees were able to return to their rooms. Clay says especially having such a system in a kitchen proved most effective.
Without the system, Clay says the fire could have easily gone into the attic and spread through the building. Instead, it took only hours to clean up the water and put the system back into service for life to return to normal in the unit.
