File Photo. Courtesy City of Campbell River.
Officials in Campbell River are crediting a single sprinkler for preventing major damage to a new apartment building when a fire broke out last week.
The blaze started on the fourth-floor of a 48 unit building in the 700-block of Merecroft Road just after midnight Thursday.
The single sprinkler kept flames under control until fire crews arrived.
There were no injuries although some tenants will be displaced for a few days while the water from the sprinkler is dealt with by the building owner.
“No one was home in that apartment, but occupants in the rest of the large complex were awoken by the fire alarm, and that single sprinkler helped contain the fire,” fire chief Ian Baikie said in a release.
“This is a much better outcome than a fire in an unoccupied unit without fire sprinklers.”
Fire and smoke damage was confined to a single unit on the fourth floor and water from the sprinkler got into units below where the blaze occurred.
Baikie said if not for the sprinkler, people would have been out of their homes for weeks or months.
Andy Neal
