The State - News from Oct. 16, 1988

A pressroom fire at the San Diego Union forced editors to put out a thinner and delayed version of the newspaper. About 150 to 200 people were evacuated from the building when the fire broke out at 1:15 a.m. in one of four presses, a fire official said. A sprinkler system extinguished the fire in minutes and nobody was injured, but two presses were knocked out of service. About 70,000 copies were printed before the fire and were distributed on time, but a pared-down version printed on two presses went out several hours late to about 200,000 readers. Water, smoke and fire damage was estimated at $2.5 million. The fire was attributed to a worn-out part in one of the presses, which overheated and ignited scraps of newsprint.