A spokesperson from Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue says that a sprinkler system saved ten Silverdale businesses from being destroyed by fire early Thursday morning.

Fire crews from CKFR received a call in reference to an alarm activation at the King’s Wok Buffet, located 9960 Silverdale Way, at about 6:11 a.m. Thursday.

On arrival crews discovered light smoke throughout the restaurant and found the alarm system showing a sprinkler flow activation. The call was upgraded to a commercial structure fire and additional units were dispatched.

Firefighters found that a fire had started on a food cart in the rear of the kitchen and had activated the sprinkler system. The sprinkler system extinguished the majority of the fire and firefighters were able to extinguish the remaining fire with just a fire extinguisher. Ceiling tiles were removed and the overhead area was checked to ensure there had been no extension.

“Fire protection sprinklers are responsible for containing the fire to a small corner of the kitchen,” said CKFR spokesperson Ileana LiMarzi. “The fire was significant enough that three sprinkler heads were activated. Without the activation of the sprinkler system this fire would have quickly spread throughout the structure and potentially destroyed the nine other businesses housed in the building.

LiMarzi noted that in 1998 this same tenant space, with a different restaurant at the time, had a fire and sustained a $1.2 million loss due to not having a sprinkler system. The fire today is estimated to have caused only $5,000 in content loss and no structural damage. The current total value of the building today is over $5 million.

“This is because in just the last 90 days the King’s Wok Buffet had completed a remodel and while doing so had retrofitted the business with the fire sprinkler system,” LiMarzi added.

The County Fire Marshal responded and determined the fire to be accidental and to have been caused by spontaneous combustion.