Joplin apartment fire quickly controlled; sprinkler system credited

September 15, 2013 Joplin apartment fire quickly controlled; sprinkler system credited

From staff reports news@joplinglobe.com The Joplin Globe Sun Sep 15, 2013, 10:00 PM CDT

JOPLIN, Mo. Joplin firefighters quickly extinguished a fire Sunday night at the Frisco Station Apartments building at 601 S. Main St.

Keith Stammer, director of emergency management and acting as public information officer for the Joplin Fire Department, credits a sprinkler system for keeping the fire in check.

This is a case where the sprinkler system did its job and knocked that fire down right away, he told the Globe in a phone interview.

The fire reportedly started in a seventh-floor apartment at 7:15 p.m. when a mattress caught on fire. Stammer said the fire was under control by 7:24 p.m. and extinguished by 7:30 p.m. The seventh floor of the building was evacuated. Stammer added that residents who lived in apartments below the seventh floor were reporting heavy water damage.

The apartment, No. 702, was occupied at the time of the fire. Stammer said a superficial burn was treated at the scene.

Representatives of the American Red Cross were on the scene Sunday night but said other apartments within the building were being made available for residents displaced by the fire.

The fire is still being investigated by a Joplin fire marshal.

Read more from the original source:
Joplin apartment fire quickly controlled; sprinkler system credited