Tuesday, August 27, 2019


 RCFD Credits Fire Sprinklers for Stopping Apartment Fires


Rapid City, S.D. – Fire sprinkler protection helped to keep two recent Rapid City apartment fires small, minimizing the damage sustained.  
At around 2:00 pm on Sunday, a fire was reported in a bedroom at the Palms Apartments in the 700 block of Flormann Street. An occupant of the apartment that was at home at the time of the fire escaped without injury. The fire was quickly confined to the mattress and the room of origin by a single sprinkler head. Firefighters from Rapid City Fire Station 4 completed extinguishment of the fire and ventilated the building. The occupants of the affected apartment were temporarily displaced while water and smoke was removed and until a new mattress could be obtained.
According to Larry Fuss, owner of the property, the building in which the fire occurred has 20 apartments and is home to between 30 and 35 occupants. One occupant wrote in a Facebook message to the Rapid City Fire Department that she lives in an apartment in the building in which the fire occurred and that she is thankful for the sprinkler system. “I work nights in healthcare and was asleep when this happened”, she wrote. “I was awakened by fire fighters at my door evacuating us from the building. If not for that sprinkler and the quick action of the first responders this situation could have proven tragic.”
Fuss told the Rapid City Fire Department that the building was remodeled and retrofitted with a sprinkler system in 2012. Fuss is a strong advocate for fire sprinkler protection and says that he encourages other property owners to install them in their properties. “You can’t afford not to”, he said.
Just before 9:00 am on Monday morning, a fire occurred at the Rapid Creek Apartments in the 1100 block of Anamosa Street. Firefighters from Station 1 were dispatched to a report of an automatic fire alarm in one of the buildings at that location. When firefighters arrived, they found that a fire started in the bedroom of an apartment and had been completely extinguished before they arrived. None of the occupants of the apartment were injured. According to management at the Rapid Creek Apartments, there are 15 apartments in the three-story building in which the fire occurred. As many as 80 occupants live in the building. Before firefighters left the scene, water removal efforts were well underway. It did not appear as though the apartment’s occupants were going to be displaced as a result of the fire and sprinkler activation.
 According to statistics compiled by the Rapid City Fire Department’s Fire and Life Safety Division, there were three fire related sprinkler activations in Rapid City 2018. In those instances –one at a hotel, one at a restaurant and one in an apartment complex– damages were estimated at just under $21,000 with property saved estimated at just over $11.2 million. In each instance, the building involved was heavily occupied. No injuries were reported in any of these instances.
In an effort to encourage property owners to install fire sprinklers, the Rapid City Fire Department and the City of Rapid City have joined forces to offer a loan program for the installation of fire sprinklers. This low interest loan program, called the Life Safety Loan, will support up to 80% of the eligible costs to retrofit buildings with fire sprinkler protection. Those with interest in the program can visit the City of Rapid City Finance Office at https://www.rcgov.org/departments/finance.html
The Rapid City Fire Department continues to advocate for the installation of fire sprinkler systems as a means of protecting lives and property from fire. To learn more, visit our website at https://www.rcgov.org/departments/fire-department/fire-and-life-safety.html.
For questions or comment related to this release, please contact Lt. Jim Bussell, Public information Officer for the Rapid City Fire Department, at 605-394-4180.

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