RAPID CITY, S.D. — The Rapid City Fire Department was called to General Beadle Elementary Monday for an automatic fire alarm.
As the crew from Truck 1 was arriving on scene, Pennington County 9-1-1 dispatch advised that a caller was reporting an active fire in the kitchen.
When Truck 1 was inside, they found that there had been a fire on the stove in the kitchen. The fire had been extinguished by the commercial hood system as well as a single sprinkler head from the fire sprinkler system.
The building was occupied at the time of the fire by Rapid City Area Schools personnel that were making and distributing lunches.
The Rapid City Community Health office was also open and operating at the time of the fire. No injuries were reported and occupants safely and quickly evacuated.
The fire was confined to the stove area. Smoke was quickly cleared by firefighters who also assisted with clean-up of water from the sprinkler system.
An investigator from the Rapid City Fire Department determined that the fire was accidental. Boxes used for lunch distribution nearby the stove caught fire and were quickly extinguished by the sprinkler and hood systems. The fire should not negatively impact ongoing lunch distribution.
“The sprinkler system did exactly what it was designed to do”, said Lt. Brian Staton with the Rapid City Fire Department’s Fire and Life Safety Division. “Only the number of heads needed to put the fire out were activated. Instead of dealing with a big fire, we’re squeegeeing up water”.
