Firefighters Find Smoke, Person Asleep After Alarm Sounds in Springs

A fire that broke out in a Springs house on Tuesday morning could have been much worse had an automatic fire alarm not sounded, fire officials said. 

A Springs Fire Department chief responded to a house on Briarcroft Drive in Springs after the alarm went off around 7:15 a.m. When firefighters got there, the door was locked, but they could hear the alarm, according to Tom Baker, an East Hampton Town fire marshal. Peering through the window, they saw smoke and a person asleep on the couch. The chief called for engines to respond. 

No one was injured. 

Once inside, firefighters found that a plastic garbage can underneath a kitchen counter and behind a cabinet had caught fire from a cigarette.

"There was minimal damage to one of the kitchen cabinets," Mr. Baker said, adding that it was lucky the fire alarm went off.

The Springs Fire Department went back to the firehouse at about 7:40 a.m., but the fire marshal's office, which investigated, remained at the scene for about an hour.