ROHNERT PARK: TRANSIENTS SUSPECTED OF CAUSING STORAGE BUILDING FIRE
[4/30/2008] - Transients are suspected of starting a fire Sunday in a vacant storage building near the old Yardbirds store on Commerce Boulevard, Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety authorities said today. link

HFD questioning 3 children after apartment fire
[4/27/2008] - Houston Fire Department arson officers will be questioning three young children who were inside a southeast Houston apartment where a fire broke out on Sunday, officials said. link

Lakeland Airport Guests Evacuate After Laundry Room Fire
[4/25/2008] - LAKELAND | Workers at the Hilton Garden Inn hotel at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport evacuated 129 guests early this morning during a fire in the hotel's laundry room. link

Fire closes Naperville Malnati's
[4/22/2008] - Fire caused a Naperville pizzeria to temporarily close for business after a blaze started in the restaurant's storage room. link

Fire on Second Avenue
[4/20/2008] - ALBANY, N.Y. -- Investigators are still trying to figure out what sparked a fire in Albany on Saturday night link

Fire Forces Evacuation of Prisoners
[4/19/2008] - More than one hundred prisoners are rushed out of a local jail after smoke fills the hallways. The inmates were evacuated after smoke fills Grand Junction's Correction Facility late last night. Fire officials responded to South Avenue's Community Corrections Building around eleven-thirty last night, after the building's sprinkler system went off. link

Haverhill function hall reopens with new name, new sprinklers
[4/18/2008] - HAVERHILL — A local landmark that had been shuttered for nearly two years reopened yesterday with a new name and, more importantly, a new fire sprinkler and alarm system. link

Commissioners tentatively approve less-stringent sprinkler ordinance
[4/18/2008] - Douglas County Commissioners tentatively approved changes Thursday to requirements for automatic fire-sprinkler systems in the Tahoe-Douglas Fire Protection District. link

Downtown fire forces diners outside
[4/18/2008] - NASHUA – A basement fire ruined supper for some local diners Thursday but didn't hurt anyone, thanks to the building's sprinkler system. link

Fire in bed forces hotel evacuation
[4/18/2008] - Guests at the popular Sheraton Yankee Trader Hotel in Fort Lauderdale were evacuated Friday morning after a bed in one of the guests rooms caught on fire. The hotel's sprinkler system quickly extinguished the small blaze, which happened in a fourth-floor room. link

Elementary school fire ruled arson
[4/18/2008] - Investigators say someone intentionally tried to set a Tucson Elementary School on fire.  They were called to the scene late Thursday night to find crews had the situation in hand.  It took 21 firefighters about 12 minutes to contain the blaze.  link

Fire Does $50,000 Damage to Columbia Hotel
[4/17/2008] - Columbia (WLTX) - Guests at a hotel on Garners Ferry Road in Columbia had to be evacuated after part of it caught fire. The fire began a little after 9 a.m. at the La Quinta Inn. link

MacArthur begins installation of fire sprinklers
[4/16/2008] - Long Island MacArthur Airport has begun installation of fire sprinklers in the original section of its terminal, a move that will allow the airport to reopen a restaurant closed in 2006 for safety reasons. The T.G.I. Friday's restaurant, which opened in November 2004, was shut down in August 2006 after Newsday reported a fire-code violation: Though state codes required sprinklers in areas near the restaurant, the Town of Islip, which manages the airport, had never installed them. link

Olive Garden reopens after fire
[4/15/2008] - ASHEVILLE – The Olive Garden on Tunnel Road has reopened for dinner, following an early morning fire in the kitchen. Just before 2 a.m. Asheville Fire and Rescue responded to a fire alarm at the restaurant and extinguished the fire, which due to the sprinkler system was confined to the kitchen area. link

Small fire knocks out power to Colonial Heights government building
[4/15/2008] - Crews are still on the scene after a small fire in the Colonial Heights Public Safety Building just off of Boulevard. The fire caused a power outage to the entire building, forcing 911 calls to be rerouted to Chesterfield County. link

Sprinkler system douses fire at The Lodge
[4/13/2008] - The Iowa City Fire Department is crediting the sprinkler system at The Lodge apartment complex with putting out an early morning kitchen fire. link

Wisconsin fire raises concerns
[4/9/2008] - This weekend, three University of Wisconsin students were killed in a house fire near the campus. The cause of the fire is still being investigated, but it has raised questions of fire safety for students living on and off campuses across the country. link

Fire Sprinklers Prevented More Than a Dozen Major Fires This Year in Chicago Area
[4/8/2008] - ORLAND PARK, Ill., April 8, 2008, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board (NIFSAB) reports that a fire sprinkler that prevented a fire from spreading in a multi-unit building last week in Lake Zurich was the 15th successful activation in the Chicago area. link

Apartment fire sharpens focus on sprinklers
[4/8/2008] - Saturday blaze displaced 12 at Pepper Ridge complex A weekend blaze at an apartment complex near Manchester Village has brought renewed scrutiny to fire sprinklers and whether South Carolina's older buildings ought to have them. link

Cold Spring Fire Intentionally Set
[4/8/2008] - A fire early Monday morning at a closed Cold Spring restaurant was set intentionally, according to investigators. Central Campbell firefighters answered an alarm at about 12:30 a.m. at Stables in the 4200 block of Alexandria Pike and discovered a fire at rear of the building on the exterior. link

Sprinkler system stops fire at Tahoe Joe's kitchen
[4/7/2008] - A fire sprinkler system spared the Tahoe Joe’s restaurant off Madonna Road in San Luis Obispo from destruction early Monday, according to the city Fire Department. Firefighters were sent to the restaurant after a kitchen fire was reported at 7:33 a.m., according to city Fire Investigator John Madden. link

Sprinkler mandate eyed for buildings
[4/5/2008] - Fire sprinklers may soon be required for new buildings in Oceanside that are larger than 5,000 square feet. “Oceanside is one of the very few cities in San Diego County that does not have a sprinkler (law),” Mike Margot, chief of the fire prevention bureau, told a city Planning Commission workshop Thursday. link

Deadly house fire renews safety calls
[4/5/2008] - The dangers of fire brutally hit home this week with Thursday’s blaze in Brockway that killed 10 people — nine of them from one family. ‘‘It will not only affect the family [of the deceased] but will also affect Brockway and the fire department there for years to come,’’ Lakemont Fire Chief Tom Sral said. link

South Carolina Senate OKs Tax Breaks for Fire Sprinkler Systems
[4/4/2008] - Installing a new fire sprinkler system in a home or business could bring tax breaks worth about half their cost under a bill sent to the South Carolina Senate. Advertisement The legislation allows local governments to decide whether they'll offer tax breaks of up to 25 percent of the fire sprinkler system's cost. That money would be matched by state tax breaks. link

Kitchen fire doused in "Campus Place" building
[4/3/2008] - Firefighters -- with a little help from residential sprinklers -- doused a small kitchen fire in a third floor apartment of an apartment complex west of UND campus today, according to Grand Forks Fire Battalion Chief Rod Hadland. link

Sprinkler would have minimized fire damage at Kent State dorm
[4/3/2008]

Small Fire Causes Evacuation at FEMA Office
[4/3/2008] - A small office fire at the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Southwest Washington this morning prompted the brief evacuation of about 200 workers from the building, a D.C. fire department spokesman said. link

Officials say many Manchester buildings have fire dangers
[4/3/2008] - MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) - Fire officials in Manchester (New Hampshire) say there are thousands of buildings in the city similar to the apartment building that burned Tuesday, leaving nearly 100 people homeless. Manchester Fire Chief James Burkush said the building on Pearl Street was nearly 100 years old, so many of the modern safety codes were not met. Investigators believe the fire started in the kitchen of 1 of the apartments, and Burkush said a sprinkler system could have contained it. link

Easton approves sprinkler funds
[4/1/2008] - EASTON — Residents have approved a pair of appropriations, totaling $435,000, to install sprinklers in the former Staples Elementary School. The appropriations were unanimously approved Monday on voice votes by about 50 people at the Town Meeting. The meeting approved $250,000 to install sprinklers for the new $2 million senior center to be housed on the main floor of the former school on Morehouse Road, as well as a section of the building to be occupied by the central office for the Region 9 school district, which encompasses Easton and Redding. link