Club without sprinklers can stay open through the weekend

By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff

One of three bars shuttered by Boston fire officials because they had failed to install fire sprinklers was allowed last night to re-open temporarily.

The Milky Way Lounge & Lanes won an injunction in Suffolk Superior Court allowing it to remain open until Monday.

A hearing slated for that day will determine whether the bar can continue to operate while state fire officials consider its appeal for a one-year extension on Thursday's deadline to install the sprinklers.

A law passed in 2004 after 100 people died in a Rhode Island nightclub fire gave entertainment venues with capacities of 100 people or more three years to install sprinklers.

Milky Way owners say they should be given more time because their lease on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain expires in July, and they may have to relocate. Installing a sprinkler system would cost $70,000, they say.

Sixty-four other establishments won a reprieve by either getting extensions or waivers of the sprinkler requirement.

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