They contain blaze at cabinet shop until crews arrive

From KTVZ.COM news sources

For the second time in just over a week, sprinklers helped douse a commercial-business fire in northeast Bend, this time at a custom-cabinet shop where a compressor unit failed, officials said.

Firefighters responded shortly before 11:30 a.m. to the reported fire at Silver Creek Woodworks at 20551 Builders St. (near Boyd Acres Road and Empire Boulevard), said Bend Fire Inspector Cindy Kettering.

They arrived to find light smoke visible throughout the steel-frame building and employees outside. Crews entered and found a small fire had broken out in a room that housed a compressor unit and storage.

The sprinkler system had activated, containing the fire in the room until crews arrived and quickly extinguished it, Kettering said.

There were no injuries, she said, and crews helped remove smoke and water from the structure, which Kettering said should be back in operation shortly.

Like a March 5 fire at Carlson Sign Co., the sprinkler system functioned as designed, helping to prevent a potentially far greater loss, Kettering said.

But she said one difficulty was encountered in Friday's fire - a large accumulation of wood that prevented access to a fire hydrant and the building's exterior fire-hose connection, to possibly augment the sprinklers if need be.

"In this case, it wasn't a huge issue, because it was not a large fire," Kettering said, but it can be, as seconds count in an emergency. She urged everyone to make sure such hookups have easy road access and three feet of clearance all the way around them.

"As a fire can double in size every 1-2 minutes, even a minor delay in access can make a critical difference to lives and property," Kettering said in a news release.