The gift that keeps on giving. The Grinch arrived on Christmas Day but he was sent packing by a residential sprinkler system.

The damage. Courtesy Chief Greg Jakubowski, Lingohocken Fire Company.

Here’s a Christmas tale worth retelling, sent by email from Chief Greg Jakubowski of the Lingohocken Fire Company in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. With a nod to Dr. Seuss, we shall call it How the Residential Sprinkler System Saved Christmas.  Maybe it will be told all through the land each holiday and legislative season:

A few minutes before 1 pm on Christmas Day, several dozen firefighters from the Lingohocken and Warwick Fire Cos. (Bucks County, PA Stations 35, 95 and 66) were dispatched to a home in the 3100 block of Rushland Road in Wrightstown Township for a report of a fire in an attached garage of a 3-year old house. An accidental fire had ignited in some storage in the garage and began to spread. There were 2 cars in the 3-bay garage, including a Ford Escape and a Mercedes CLK 320. Normally, this incident would require deploying all of these firefighters, and perhaps more, for 1-2 hours to control and fully extinguish the fire, which would have likely spread to the storage, vehicles, and tools in the garage, and possibly to the master bedroom located directly above the garage. The home is located in an area that would require firefighters to truck water in, as there are no hydrants nearby. Damage most likely would have been in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the residents would have likely had to relocate for weeks while their home was being repaired.

However, thanks to the foresight of the Wrightstown Township supervisors, and the efforts of the fire marshal’s office in Wrightstown, this home was equipped with residential sprinklers, including in the garage area. One sprinkler activated, fully extinguishing the fire prior to the fire department’s arrival, 7 minutes after the call. Instead of 30-40 firefighters being in service for several hours, a single crew of 6 firefighters was able to check for extension (there was none) and remove the damaged items from the house. A 2 liter soda bottle that was half full and located 2 feet from the point of origin, had partially melted, but never spilled the soda. The contents of the garage suffered several thousand dollars of damage, a far cry from the damage without sprinklers. There were no injuries to the residents, nor to firefighters. The volunteer firefighters returned to celebrate the holiday with their families in under 45 minutes, and the homeowner and his family were able to finish their celebration in their home after a bit of cleanup.

Pennsylvania is the first state in the country to adopt new model codes that require sprinklers in all new townhouses that will be built after January 1, 2010, and all new residences built after January 1, 2011. Several Bucks County communities already have their own ordinances in place – and these sprinklers are saving lives and property right now in these communities.

Also on STATter911 …

• What did you do on Christmas? Some additional scenes from around the country. – December 26, 2009
• Quick Takes – December 28, 2009
• UPDATED: Firefighters on duty Christmas Day. A video tour. – December 25, 2009
• Early video from DC house fire. Car on fire in garage of Northwest home. – March 22, 2010