Fire Strikes Keizer Assisted Living Facility‏

Fire and smoke damage was confined to the laundry room with a small amount of damage to the hall immediately outside of the laundry room.

(KEIZER, Ore.) - Units of the Keizer Fire District responded to a report of a fire alarm sounding at a Keizer assisted living facility shortly after 8:00 PM on Wednesday night, according to Fire District Spokesman Jim Trett.

"When firefighters arrived on the scene they discovered a fire had been burning in the laundry room of the facility."

Trett says the call of an alarm sounding was received at 8:10 PM from the Avamere Court at Keizer Retirement and Rehabilitation facility, located at 5210 River Road NE in Keizer.

"When the first units arrived on the scene at 8:13 PM, fire crews could hear the fire alarm sounding and could smell smoke in the area of buildings two and three of the facility." Trett says fire crews entering the building observed smoke coming from under the door of the laundry room.

"Fire crews found a fire had been burning in the laundry room located in an area adjoining the two buildings. Firefighters discovered the automatic fire sprinkler system had been activated by the flames and extinguished the fire before fire crews could access the room."

Fire and smoke damage was confined to the laundry room with a small amount of damage to the hall immediately outside of the laundry room. The rest of the structure received no damage from fire or smoke according to Trett.

As the fire was contained to the laundry room and was extinguished so quickly by the sprinkler system, residents of the facility did not have to be evacuated. No injuries were reported in the incident.

Trett says the cause of the fire was determined to be spontaneous combustion of oily rags in a confined container. No damage estimate was immediately available pending evaluation of dryer equipment in the room.

Fire officials took the opportunity to remind people not to put oily rags in closed containers as they can spontaneously combust in to destructive fires. They also noted that had an automatic sprinkler system not been in place in this facility the fire could have caused major damage before being discovered.