By Jackee Coe – The Arizona Republic

A fire in a back room of a trailer home in Goodyear served as a reminder of basic fire safety practices and the value of residential fire sprinklers.

The Goodyear Fire Department received a call about 5:30 p.m. Saturday that a home in the Canada Village community on the 18000 block of West Lynwood was on fire, spokesman Russ Braden said.

“When we pulled out and we’re driving down there, we could see a column of smoke,” he said.

Firefighters arrived on scene in about six minutes and had the fire under control after 15 minutes, he said. Buckeye and Avondale units helped extinguish the blaze.

No one was home and there were no injuries, but damage was estimated at $140,000.

The owner of the home told officials the fire was probably started by a radiant floor heater someone accidentally left on, Braden said.

“That’s why you always have to be very careful with those. They get very hot,” he said.

Braden noted there was no fire sprinkler system in the home. Sprinklers aren’t required for homes smaller than 5,000 square feet, but they can make a significant difference.

“It really limits the damage and exposure to everyone,” he said. “They’re life safety. You save lives with them, protect property, reduce the damage because in the time it takes us to get there, it’s going to burn that much longer.”

Sprinkler systems go off quickly and are “very effective” in containing the fire before it spreads, he added.

“I’ve been on both sides where I’ve seen where it really could have made a big difference and I’ve seen . . . where they’ve made big differences with stopping the fire and forward progress and saving a lot of property,” Braden said.

The Fire Department hopes to see more fire sprinklers added to homes as Goodyear continues to grow.

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