St. Paul Man's Burning Apartment Saved By Single Sprinkler

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - A stove top fire, which consumed the cabinet and crawled up the wall of a blind St. Paul man's apartment, was extinguished by a single fire sprinkler.

The man said he had accidentally left a plastic tray touching the burner and left the room while he was cooking a late lunch, according to a St. Paul Fire Department release.

Firefighters responded to the blaze shortly after 3 p.m. on Oct. 30. The fire was in a high-rise apartment building at 1300 Wilson Avenue, owned by St. Paul's Public Housing Agency.

The fire department said the incident demonstrates the extreme effectiveness of sprinklers in putting out fires.

They are 96 percent effective, even if only one or two sprinklers go off, the department said.