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The calls have all been similar pranks: A frantic man urges hotel desk workers or guests to set off a fire sprinkler, sound an alarm or bust windows. It’s always the same: Do it now!

And, authorities said Thursday, they did. Eight cases have been reported in four states in recent days, and authorities say felony charges could be filed against whoever is making the calls.

In Alabama, a Marine roused from his sleep got “knocked silly” by a blast of water after being persuaded to set off the sprinkler in his room; there was no fire.

A motel in Arkansas sustained $50,000 in damage when a worker fell for a similar ruse.

A man was even convinced to drive his truck through a door of a hotel lobby in Nebraska, supposedly to turn off a fire alarm. And in California, a duped worker activated a sprinkler at the front desk, dousing computers, phones and other electrical equipment.

“It’s happening all over,” said Fire Marshal Ed Paulk of Alabama, where four hotels have been targeted by the calls since last week, resulting in thousands of dollars in damage. “We’re actively trying to track this and find out who is doing this.”

The general manager of a Comfort Suites in Daphne near the Alabama coast, Rupesh Desai, said a prank call about a fire alarm resulted in $10,000 in water damage last Friday.

Around the same time, he said, a caller convinced guests to bust windows at a sister hotel in Saraland, about 25 miles away, because of a natural gas leak that didn’t exist.

“In my hotel experience I’ve never heard of anything like this,” Desai said.

Trying to prevent more people from being fooled, trade groups are telling member companies and hotels to remind workers about basic emergency procedures like calling managers or security companies before doing anything drastic like setting off fire suppression sprinklers.

“No employees should be doing things like this without checking with someone,” said Namara Mercer, executive director of the San Diego County Hotel-Motel Association in San Diego, Calif.

Paulk said investigators suspect more than one person is behind the calls, and some could be inspired by Internet sites about phone pranks.

In York, Neb., Police Chief Don Klug said a man with a deep voice phoned a Hampton Inn around midnight on May 27 and scared a desk worker into pulling a fire alarm. During the confusion, the caller then convinced the worker the only way to silence the noise was to break lobby windows.

“A trucker was standing there, and he offered to help and drove his truck through the front door,” said Klug. The damage was estimated at $300, he said.

Desai, the Alabama hotel manager, said seven rooms were flooded when a caller got the sleeping Marine to set off the sprinkler in his room.

“He was knocked silly by the force of the water,” said Desai. “He was not a dummy, he just woke up in the middle of the night not realizing what was going on.”

Six other guests also got the calls but did nothing, he said.

A couple hours later in San Luis Obispo, Calif., a worker caused major damage by following a caller’s instructions to activate a sprinkler at the front desk of a Comfort Inn and Suites.

And in Conway, Ark., a caller convinced a worker at a Holiday Inn Express to set off an audible fire alarm and, with help from a guest, broke windows in an attempt to turn it off. She also was duped into turning on a sprinkler, flooding the lobby and causing major damage; about 150 guests were in the parking lot when police arrived.

A Holiday Inn Express in Little Rock, Ark., got a similar call around the same time, a police report said, but no one fell for the prank there.

The Alabama fire marshall said whoever’s making the calls could face jail time.

“It’s gotten to be the latest fad, but at some point someone is going to be caught,” he said.

Columbia City Council passed an ordinance in January 2007 requiring all fraternities and sororities to install automatic sprinkler systems within five years. The ordinance received criticism from local chapters and The Fire Sprinkler Task Force was created in order to recommend amendments to the ordinance. City Council voted on those proposed amendments last night. KBIA’s Tyler Goetz has more.

The Fire Sprinkler Task force presented its recommendations for amendments to the sprinkler ordinance last night. Janet Wheller is a member of the task force and President of Kappa Alpha Theta Facility corporation board. She presented some of the recommendations to the city council.

“The recommendation was that the ordinance as it was drafted was unclear as to what constituted a fraternity or sorority it lacked a definition. The task force recommended that they define fraternity and sorority.”

Task force members also recommended extending the original deadline of five years to install the systems to seven years. The city council unanimously approved all the recommendations. The language of the ordinance is now much more specific- fraternity and sorority houses and annexes, housing 16 or more people are now required to install an automatic sprinkler system by March 2016.

“I can’t speak for the entire task force but I’m pleased with the result this evening it think its going to add a hightened degree of life safety protection for individuals that choose to reside in fraternity and sorority houses.”

The amendment also allows city council to vary the requirements depending on the effort of the chapter to raise funds for a sprinkler system. According to the Task Force a sprinkler system for an average fraternity or sorority house would cost between 150 to 160 thousand dollars. Currently there are no programs or funding set up to help Columbia chapters pay for the requirements set by the city, but the task force hopes there is possibility in the future.

It was a messy Christmas for some residents of a Hollywood apartment complex.

A grease fire on Thursday night set off the sprinkler system in a third-floor apartment, and flooded two other apartments below.

The sprinklers extinguished the fire at the apartment complex, 430 S. Park Rd. in Hollywood. But the water kept on flowing and flooding before firefighters could shut off the system.

AFSA’s 27th Annual Convention & Exhibition will take place Oct. 15-19 in Washington, D.C., at the Wardman Park Marriott. Registrations have been pouring in, and it looks like North America’s largest fire sprinkler industry show is set for another record-breaking year. The regular registration deadline for this exciting event is Friday, Sep. 5. After this date, registration will only be available onsite. So, don’t delay; register today! For more information or to submit your registration securely online, visit the AFSA Convention’s page (link below).

More Information: http://www.firesprinkler.org/convention/index.htm

St. Petersburg, Florida - Workers at Northside Hospital spent the early morning hours of Sunday mopping up, after a fire sprinkler broke causing water to flood a nursing station.

Joe Schlagheck Vice President of Business Development says the sprinkler sprayed water for about 15 minutes.

Lealman Fire crews responded to the hospital around 1 am to assist and fix the sprinkler that broke. They say around 23 patients were moved because of water damage.

Schlagheck says no one was injured and no medical equipment was damaged.

Simply Celebrations, a party-supply store on historic Main Street, has something to celebrate.

A fire Monday afternoon was quickly extinguished by a newly installed sprinkler system.

The system was required by an ordinance approved by the City Council in November to protect historic buildings and had been installed about six months ago.

“This is a tailor-made case with why you need fire sprinklers, especially on historic Main Street,” City Manager Bruno Rumbelow said.

At 2:16 p.m., firefighters received a call from The Magic Pen and Party about water leaking into the store from Simply Celebrations next door, officials said.

Firefighters forced their way into the closed store, in the 400 block of South Main Street. Division Fire Chief Mark Ashmead estimated water damage at about $5,000. But, he said, if not for the sprinkler system, the fire could have easily spread to the two adjacent stores and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage.

“Given that no one was here and the flammable contents of the store, we could