Below are brief accounts of recent fires in industrial, commercial and residential buildings, all controlled or extinguished by sprinklers.

Staffordshire Fire & Rescue reports that sprinklers saved a large Amazon warehouse from an arson attack on 13 November. Fires were set in three locations but the sprinkler system controlled them, preventing major damage.

On 10 November fire broke out in a cell complex of the Trajectum forensic hospital in Rekken. The fire was extinguished by the sprinkler system.

On 9 November a successful sprinkler activation occurred in the bin room at Shaftsbury House, a high-rise block in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. A single concealed sidewall head, fed by the town main water supply, operated to extinguished the fire. There was little damage.

At just after 22:00 on 6 November, Hertfordshire Fire & Rescue Service was called to a fire in a second storey bedroom of a 3-storey house in Rickmansworth. The fire was started by a candle setting fire to curtains. A single sprinkler operated and the fire was out when the fire brigade arrived. Nobody was hurt and damage was estimated at £3,000.

On the night of 4 November the Utrecht Fire Brigade was called to a fire in the Hema distribution centre on the Atoomweg. The sprinkler system extinguished the fire before the fire brigade arrived. The fire is believed to have started in a cardboard shredder. There was limited damage. Lees verder

At 09:00 on 26 October Scottish Fire and Rescue was called to a fire in Williamwood High School in Clarkston, Renfrewshire. On arrival, they discovered a small fire had occurred in a non-teaching area and had been extinguished by the school’s sprinkler system. An East Renfrewshire Council spokesperson said: “Williamwood High was evacuated on Wednesday morning as a safety precaution, following a minor fire. No one was hurt and students were back in class in under an hour.” Recent data from West Midlands Fire & Rescue Service shows that most school fires occur during the day and that most are accidental.

London Fire Brigade responded at 11:51 on 24 October to a fire in a 5-storey specialised housing scheme of 32 flats in Catesby Street, London. On arrival crews noted that the fire had begun in cardboard in a waste bin and that a single sprinkler head had activated to extinguish it. The fire was believed to have been caused by a cigarette. Damage was minor. The building dates from the 1980s and had been retrofitted with sprinklers.

At 15:09 hours on 20 October, Avon Fire & Rescue Service received a call to a fire in Milsom Street, Bath. The 60m x 40m building comprises a ground floor department store with 1st floor mixed commercial and residential (private flats) and the 2nd and 3rd floor purely residential private flats. There is also a basement area. The fire, which involved a quantity of paper, was on the ground floor in the common area between the department store and the flats. Upon arrival it was noted that a single pendant sprinkler head, located in the common parts, had operated and extinguished the fire. Fire damage was limited to 2m² and business interruption was reported as 2 hours. This incident again shows that ‘Common Parts’ cannot always be considered to be ‘sterile’ and extending sprinkler protection to cover these areas is a sensible precaution.

At 06:30 on 9 October the Amsterdam Fire Brigade was called to a fire in a restaurant in the west pedestrian tunnel at Amsterdam Central Station. The sprinkler system controlled the fire in the extract hood and the fire brigade quickly completed extinguishment. The station was closed for 45 minutes while the smoke was ventilated. Lees verder

Norfolk fire & Rescue Service reports that at 14:20 on 7 October a fire broke out in paper-making machinery at Palm Paper, Kings Lynn, Norfolk. Chief Fire Officer Roy Harold said: “We were called to reports of a fire in a paper bale on a winding drum. The sprinkler system went off and stopped the fire spreading to the rest of the building, but the fire was inside the machinery which was hard to get to. Thermal image cameras were used to check for hot spots.”