‘Another cat saved’: Firefighters extinguish Forest Lakes blaze

From staff reports
Published: April 4, 2008

An elderly woman and her cat Ellie escaped a townhouse fire Thursday afternoon without injury.
At 3:10 p.m., 10 fire and rescue vehicles rushed to the blaze at Jane Grinnell’s townhouse in the Forest Lakes neighborhood.
In Grinnell’s sunroom attached to the rear of the townhouse, firefighters found a burning couch, desk and chair. They extinguished the fiery furniture and dragged it into the backyard to hose it down.
Firefighters from Monticello Fire and Rescue’s engine company 111 found Grinnell’s cat hiding in the residence and carried it out to safety.
“Another cat saved,” said Doug Smythers, chief of the Seminole Trail Volunteer Fire Department.
Engine Company 111 rescued another cat in a burning house a few weeks back in Mill Creek South.
The fire at Grinnell’s townhouse could have been much worse, Smythers said, had the home not had residential fire sprinklers installed.
Thanks to the sprinklers, the fire was contained in the sunroom.
“Had there not been those sprinklers, the whole back of the house would have been on fire,” Smythers said.
Fire sprinklers are common in schools, office buildings, factories and apartment complexes but remain rare in detached homes and townhouses.
According to the U.S. Fire Administration, residential fire sprinklers could save thousands of lives per year. In 2005, residential fires killed 3,055 and injured 13,825 people and caused $6.9 billion in property damage.