Fire Sprinkler Extinguishes Fire in Downtown Trash Room

Firefighters responded to 544 West Main Street for a report of smoke in the parking garage. Command Car 31 assigned Ladder Co. 1 to investigate.

A resident advised there was smoke in the trash room and the sprinkler system had activated. Firefighters investigated the trash room, finding that a fire had damaged the dumpster, but there was no active fire thanks to a single operating sprinkler that extinguished it. 

The parking garage was ventilated, and firefighters shut down the sprinkler system. 

The exact cause of the fire could not be determined, but the fire is believed to be accidental.

Other than the dumpster, which was a total loss, there was no other damage to the room. No residents were injured or displaced.

This marks the third fire in Madison in ten days where a fire sprinkler suppressed the fire before it could grow. All three fire sprinkler saves occurred in multi-family apartment buildings, where the damage from fire would have displaced several households for a long period of time while also preventing fire-related injury or fatality. 

Because automatic fire sprinklers contained these fires quickly and limited damage, the majority of occupants in these buildings have been unaffected, and no injuries were reported.