Fire In Campground Shower Building Causes Only Minimal Damage

19 April 2004

At about 7:30 PM on April 19, 2004, Sugarloaf Fire Rescue and Engine-11 (from the Cudjoe Key substation) were dispatched to an area commercial campground with respect to a report that one the the shower buildings was on fire. A Lieutenant with SLVFD was the first to arrive on the scene and was directed to the building in question by the campground's security guard. While smoke and some smoldering embers were visible, it appeared that the fire had essentially put itself out by melting a soldered copper tubing connection. Mutual aid units en route from Big Pine VFD were cancelled but the units from Station 10 (Sugarloaf) and Station 11 (Cudjoe) continued.

Upon arrival of Engine-10, Tanker-10, and Engine-11, a thorough investigation was made to be sure that the fire was completely out and that there was no extension into concealed spaces in the wood frame building. It appeared that a small fire had begun on the wood deck adjacent to a wood frame wall and had burned into the wall where it spread between two adjacent "studs." A horizontal member between the two studs at waist height had been installed to support a shower valve but in this case it trapped the heat and also stopped the vertical spread of the fire. The contained heat was high enough to melt the solder where copper pipes were attached to a shower valve. When the connection ruptured, the leak dowsed the fire.

Damage was limited to the plumbing and the exterior paneling removed to search for extension and confirm that the fire had been fully extinguished.

This small fire illustrates a couple of important fire principles. First, without the horizontal brace, the fire would have continued to spread upward and might well have been much more serious before being discovered. The horizontal brace, however, served as a "fire stop" and prevented the fire from spreading upward. Modern building codes require the placement of just such cross members to act as fire stops. Also, this fire was in effect put out by the water that it released. This very principle is used in sprinkler systems installed in modern and larger buildings. Although those systems are more sophisticated and better designed, the manner in which they work is about the same: heat from the fire allows water to flow, which then sprays down on the source of the heat.

The incident was investigated on behalf of the Monroe County Fire Marshall's Office but no definitive cause was immediately identified. While there may well be no direct relationship to this particular fire, it is important to always keep in mind the importance of being especially careful with cigarettes and other smoking materials since many of the buildings in our area have wooden decks that are elevated a good distance above the ground, which provides excellent ventilation and encourages abandoned smoking materials to continue to burn and ignite other materials over a period of time.

Written By: John Parken 

Photos By: John Parken