May 4, 2004 -- Firefighters were running for political office, so to speak, after a suspicious fire broke out in a Brooklyn assemblywoman's headquarters.
The blaze Friday in Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein's Sheepshead Bay district office was quickly doused by the sprinkler system.
Weinstein said the fire began shortly after midnight, when someone broke into her private office and ignited a cardboard box containing files. Fire marshals have labeled the fire suspicious.
Water from the sprinklers caused most of the damage to legislative files, personal documents and furniture.
The damaged items included thank-you letters from satisfied constituents.
"I don't believe this has anything to do with my profession," Weinstein said. "We tend to have pretty happy and satisfied constituents."
Coincidentally, someone burned down Weinstein's former office on Flatbush Avenue in 1982.
