An overnight fire at the Southern Maine Community College Campus Center in South Portland was contained thanks to an automatic sprinkler system, the South Portland Fire Department said in a news release.
The fire department was called to the building at 12:17 a.m. Friday by the campus fire alarm system. There they found that the sprinkler system had activated, containing the fire to the Sea Wolves Café, where it started.
The department did not indicate the cause of the fire but said it was accidental, the damage to the building was minor, and the fire did not spread beyond the items that initially caught fire.
South Portland Fire Chief Phil Selberg said the damage could have been much worse if the automatic system had not kicked on.
“This fire occurred in the middle of the night, when no one was in the building to discover it. The sprinkler system worked as it was designed and saved the Campus Center,” he said.
