
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 17, 1990                   TAG: 9003172399
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS                                LENGTH: Short

PRISONER SUSPECTED OF FLOODING COURTS

A prisoner is suspected of holding a match to a sprinkler head, triggering a fire sprinkler system and causing flooding that soaked two courtrooms in the city's new courthouse and sent cascades of water onto lower floors.

Water had flowed from the holding cell and into two adjacent courtrooms, then traveled down an elevator shaft and electrical conduits to the second floor. There, it caused some plaster damage in the traffic courtroom, which is scheduled to open next week, and cascaded into a circuit clerk's office where no desks or files were located.

"All we can do is see it and, of course, we're busy and don't see it," said Maj. C.E. "Chuck" Moore, the jail administrator.

Moore said the prisoner, who he declined to name, will be charged with making a false alarm and damaging city property. He said the prisoner had been searched, but hid the matches in his underwear.

- Associated Press

by CNB