Hotel utility room fire contained by sprinkler system (West Yellowstone, MT)

“A water heater was the cause of the fire,” HBFD Assistant Fire Chief Shane Grube said. The pan on the bottom of a water heater in the hotel’s utility room got too close to the floor, which caused the fire. “The sprinklers began to discharge in the utility room and after some investigating, we found the burn pattern was underneath the water heater,” Waldron said. “The floor was burned completely down through. And it was the sprinkler system that really had done its job,” Grube said.