Image courtesy City of Oak Ridge
Submitted
On Friday, August 24, at about 12:38 a.m., the Oak Ridge Fire Department responded to a fire alarm caused by water flow from sprinklers at NHC Healthcare on Laboratory Road.
The first unit on scene reported that an employee saw fire coming from a clothes dryer and then saw water flow in the dryer area. The engine company controlled the water from the sprinkler head, closed gas, and disconnected power from all three dryers. No injuries were reported, and no fire damage was noted in or around the dryer. Fire department personnel also mitigated the water from the sprinkler head activation. The facility was back to normal operation within a few hours.
This was the second incident worked by the Oak Ridge Fire Department in just 24 hours that involved the successful use of a life-saving device.
On Thursday, August 23, firefighters responded to a house fire on East Drive where a smoke alarm likely saved the resident’s life, waking him up in the middle of the night so he could escape the home safely. In Friday’s incident, the activation of the sprinkler system inside the assisted living facility helped extinguish the fire before it could spread.
The Oak Ridge Fire Department would like to remind everyone that both smoke alarms and fire sprinkler systems are instrumental in increasing your chances of surviving a fire. Sprinkler systems can be installed in your home just like they are in commercial settings.
According to the National Fire Protection Association, having working smoke alarms and a working home fire sprinkler system increases your chance of surviving a fire by 80 percent. It’s also important to note that all sprinklers do not activate at once. This scenario may be common in movies and television shows, but it isn’t true for home fire sprinkler systems. Only the sprinkler closest to the fire activates. Ninety percent of the time one sprinkler contains the fire.
For more information on these safety devices and how you can prevent fires, please contact the Oak Ridge Fire Department at (865) 425-3520.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
Image courtesy City of Oak Ridge
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