Sprinklers saved an apartment complex from flames Monday night, according to the Oak Harbor Fire Department.

Battalion Chief Ray Merrill said a resident of Oak Bay Station, an apartment complex next to the Roller Barn, was packing to leave and set a box of pots and pans on the stovetop.

The woman accidentally turned a burner on low and the cardboard slowly started to smolder until it turned into a full-fledged conflagration.

“She had gone to bed and saw an orange glow in the kitchen,” Merrill said.

The fire department was called at 9:49 p.m. But sprinklers in the apartment put out the flames before the firefighters arrived.

“There was no structural damage to the building at all,” he said. The pots and pans were the only casualty.

Merrill said everyone at the complex was able to return to their apartments immediately, though the resident with the fire opted to stay at a neighbor’s home because of the dampness.