HOLLAND, MI (WHTC-AM/FM, Feb. 11, 2026) – For the second time in a 48-hour span, the value of a building sprinkler system in stymieing a fire in Holland was evident.
Shortly after 7 AM on Tuesday, Department of Public Safety firefighters and police officers were dispatched to the DeWitt Student and Cultural Center on the Hope College campus. School campus safety officers had been looking into a waterflow alarm when they discovered smoke in the basement of the structure.
Responding crews came upon flames from an office in that lower level, but the installed fire suppression system had been activated and brought the blaze under control. Crews then took care of salvage and overhaul efforts, which made the impact of the blaze minimal on classes and normal operations in the building.
No injuries to occupants or responders were reported. A dollar estimate of the damage caused was not immediately made, and Holland Fire Marshal Bret Groendyke determined that the fire likely originated near a desktop light.
Just before 12 Midnight on Sunday, another waterflow alarm at the The Farmstead complex off of East 24th Street led to crews being sent there. A bag of linens in a kitchen storage area had caught fire, apparently through spontaneous combustion of products within. As in the Hope College incident, installed sprinklers brought the flames under control quickly, with no injuries reported, and damage kept to a minimum.
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