FALMOUTH — Falmouth’s fire chief is crediting a sprinkler system with preventing more extensive fire damage from occurring to a 30,000 square-foot commercial building at 400 Route 1.

Chief Howard Rice Jr. said his department responded around 12:50 p.m. Sunday to a fire alarm sounding in the building.

Rice said a single sprinkler head helped extinguish a fire that appears to have started in a basement hot water heater and burned materials in a storage closet.

It took firefighters about 15 minutes to put the fire out but Rice said the fire could have caused extensive damage to the building – it is occupied by Anodyne Solutions – if it had not been for the sprinkler system.

Only one person was in the building at the time of the fire and no injuries were reported.