Sprinklers Knock Down Downtown Apartment Fire

A sprinkler system helped stop an apartment fire in downtown Los Angeles before it spread through the building. (mynewsla.com) Los Angeles Fire Department crews were sent to 519 E. Seventh St. at about 5:20 p.m. Saturday, April 18, and found a fire burning contents inside one unit of a six-story apartment building. The sprinkler activation was reported on the third floor. (mynewsla.com) Firefighters put out the remaining flames, and the department reported no immediate injuries to residents or firefighters. Some residents were displaced while crews secured the scene after the knockdown. (hoodline.com) In apartment fires, sprinklers are designed to react to heat at the fire room, not to flood an entire building at once. National Fire Protection Association data says fire spread is confined to the object or room of origin in 94 percent of reported structure fires where sprinklers are present. (nfpa.org) That matters in dense downtown buildings, where a fire in one unit can push smoke and heat into hallways, stairwells, and neighboring apartments within minutes. The Los Angeles Fire Department’s fire code incorporates the California Fire Code with local amendments for buildings in the city. (lafd.org) National Fire Protection Association research also found civilian death and injury rates per fire were lower in properties with sprinklers than in comparable fires without automatic extinguishing systems. The same report found firefighter injury rates per fire were 35 percent lower when sprinklers were present. (nfpa.org) This fire ended with a burned unit, wet floors, and temporary displacement instead of a building-wide evacuation with injuries. By Saturday evening, the main fact at 7th and San Pedro was that the system built to buy time did exactly that. (hoodline.com)