Failure of Omega fire sprinkler results in first injury
                            By BILL BASKERVILL 
                            The Associated Press
                          05/15/98 6:45 PM Eastern
                                      
   RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- A fire sprinkler considered unreliable by
   federal safety regulators failed to activate in an Arizona apartment
   blaze, causing $250,000 in damage and minor burns to one woman.
   
   It was the first known injury caused by an Omega brand sprinkler that
   failed.
   
   The fire occurred late Tuesday in a 16-unit apartment building in
   Scottsdale. The woman suffered first-degree burns to her hands and
   nose and singed her hair trying to put out the fire with a towel, fire
   department spokesman Colin Williams said Friday by phone. The woman
   was treated at the scene.
   
   In March, the Consumer Product Safety Commission asked a judge to
   order a national recall of the 10 million Omegas used in apartment
   buildings, hospitals, hotels, schools, prisons, office buildings,
   private residents, and even in the White House and U.S. Capitol.
   
   Central Sprinkler Co., the nation's second-largest manufacturer of
   fire sprinklers, has challenged the recall, saying sprinkler heads are
   not consumer products and the CPSC has no authority in the case.
   
   Since May 1995, Omegas have failed to work in fires at Michigan hotel,
   a Veterans Affairs hospital in New York, an Indiana juvenile detention
   home, a Maryland bed and breakfast, a California apartment building, a
   Florida marina and a rooming house and college dormitory in
   Massachusetts. No injuries occurred.
   
   In the Arizona fire, the lone Omega in the woman's bedroom failed, and
   the fire spread into the building attic. Six other Omegas in the
   apartment building and outside the front door worked, but the fire was
   out of control by then, Williams said.
   
   Central Sprinkler, of Lansdale, Pa., had no immediate comment.
   
   In August, The Associated Press reported that the Omega had a 35
   percent failure rate in tests conducted for the Fairfax County Fire
   and Rescue Department and a 31 percent failure rate in tests by
   Underwriters Laboratories.
   
   Central disputed the failure rates, saying laboratory results cannot
   predict sprinkler head failures in actual site conditions.
   
   The company has spent about $5 million to test and replace Omegas and
   has reserved an additional $13.2 million for future work.
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