Staff reports
An adult and child were displaced late Tuesday afternoon after a fire at the Magnolia Park Apartments on Laurel Bay Road.
Just past 4 p.m., the Burton Fire District was dispatched to an activated fire alarm at the Magnolia Park Apartments on Laurel Bay Road. Firefighters arrived on scene to find a fire sprinkler system had been activated by a cooking fire and was flowing water from a single sprinkler head.
The sprinkler system had fully extinguished the fire prior to the fire department’s arrival. Firefighters shut the water off and ensured the fire did not spread beyond the stove.
Due to the water in the apartment and power to the residence having to be shut off, a female adult and child were displaced and are being assisted by the Red Cross. No other residents were displaced and were able to return home.
While fire officials state that there was some water damage to the apartment, all things considered, damages were extremely limited for this type of fire.
“A residential sprinkler head flows about 25 gallons of water a minute,” said Burton Fire Captain Ethan Webb, who was first to arrive. “But today it extinguished the fire immediately. Had the fire spread, not only would you have more fire damages, but our hose lines flow about 150 gallons of water a minute, so there would have been significantly more damages that could have also potentially impacted other residents in the complex.
“We can dry out your home, but we can’t unburn it,” said Webb.
