Apartment electrical fire contained by sprinkler system (Novato, CA)

A stacked washer-drier unit in an exterior closet caught fire next to a downtown Novato apartment, and the only loss was a few clothes. Firefighters responded to the call and found that a sprinkler system had done most of the work on the electrical fire, which took place on the patio of an apartment. Battalion Chief Jeff Veliquette said the fire remained contained to the exterior closet. "The sprinklers knocked it down," Veliquette said. "The take-home message is that sprinklers did their job and held it off long enough for us to do our job. Otherwise this could have easily spread into the apartment."