On Monday, November 15, 2021, at approximately 11:30 a.m., firefighters from Bay District, NAS Patuxent River, and Valley Lee were dispatched to 21070 Kala Lane in Lexington Park, for the reported structure fire.
The St. Mary’s County Emergency Communications Center (ECC) advised they had received numerous 911 calls indicating it was a working fire on the third floor.
Crews arrived on the scene and found a 4-story apartment complex with nothing evident. Upon further investigation, crews found a fire on a third-floor balcony that had been extinguished by the fire sprinklers.
Units checked for further damage and for extension and none was found.
No injuries were reported, and all damage was contained to the balcony furniture due to the operation of the sprinklers.
The Office of the Maryland State Fire Marshal was contacted by Incident Command, it is unknown if the fire is under investigation.
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) research shows that sprinklers reduce the rate of civilian fire deaths by 87% and injuries by 27%, and they can lower “the risk of property loss by 70%.”. Damage to this structure would have been undoubtedly much more if it were not for the fire sprinklers.
Sprinkler systems extinguished a fire on the third floor in the same area on Friday, October 1, 2021, when firefighters responded to the 46000 block of Morning Dew Lane in Lexington Park, for the reported fire on a third floor balcony. Full article can be read here.
