Sprinkler System Extinguishes Weekend Blaze at Home on Maple Avenue

A house fire Saturday night on Maple Avenue could have resulted in much more damage were it not for the home’s sprinkler system, a Glen Ellyn fire official said.

The fire Saturday in the 300 block of Maple Avenue was contained to the home’s kitchen and extinguished before the even arrived, said Lt. Craig Eldridge, the company’s public information officer. 

The fire started when a gas stove ignited a coffee maker, he said. The homeowners had just put a pot of water on to boil and were in the back yard when one of the family members noticed flames. The wife called 911 and the husband went back inside the home. As he entered the home, the sprinklers went off.

“The fire activated the sprinkler system and it put out the fire,” Eldridge said.

The fire company was on the scene within minutes, with a full company of firefighters, but the fire had already been extinguished by the water from the sprinkler system, Eldridge said.

“The interesting thing about the fire is the home’s sprinkler kept it from being a big fire,” he said. 

The village was one of the first communities to require sprinkler systems in new homes as part of the village’s building code, he said.

Glen Ellyn is a safe community and doesn’t experience many fires, he said. This was the first case the fire company can confirm where a fire was extinguished with the assistance of the sprinkler system. 

The single-family home was about 6 years old, Eldridge said. Damage was contained to the kitchen. While the home did experience some damage from the fire and water in the kitchen, the fire was unable to spread.

Sprinkler systems are activated by fire. The flames from the stove triggered the sprinkler in the kitchen, he said. The fire company’s investigator said that without the sprinkler system, the fire would likely have spread throughout the first floor of the home.

“The sprinkler system did its job,” Eldridge said. “We actually had a sprinkler system save thousands and thousands of dollars in damage.”

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