Automated Sprinkler System Saves Kennewick Apartment Complex From Major Fire

Thanks to requirements for residential sprinklers, some occupants escaped injury, and a Kennewick complex avoided major damage.

  Thursday fire suppressed by indoor sprinkler

Around 5:30 AM Thursday, August 31st. residents of one of the units at the newer Ridgecrest Apartments, located at 2652 West 15th. Ave., were  awakened by a fire alarm sounding, and were able to flee their unit.

At the same fire, automated indoor sprinklers turn on, showering the fire and confining it to that single unit. In fact, the sprinkler put out the fire just  as Kennewick Fire crews were arriving.

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Chief Chad Michael said the sprinkler undoubtedly saved a number of other units and possibly other residents from harm.   Newer revisions to the International Fire Code now mandate indoor sprinklers in newer residential apartment and multi-family dwellings.

According to the KFD:

"According to the National Fire Protection Association’s U.S. Experience with Sprinklers report, the home fire death rate was 90 percent lower when fire sprinklers and hardwired smoke alarms were present during fires, and the average firefighter injury rate was 80 percent lower when fire sprinklers were present during fires."

The KFD continues the investigation, they did not say what started the fire.