San Diego

A Soviet exhibition that was supposed to open Monday at the San Diego Convention Center has been delayed until Friday because a fire-extinguishing system in the special-events area failed to operate, said Donna Alm, a spokeswoman for the center.

Dan Wilkens, spokesman for the San Diego Unified Port District, said the city’s contractor did not release the special-events area to the Convention Center because a water-cannon test failed to meet the Fire Department’s standards.

“The water cannon, which looks like the end of a firefighter’s hose, did not shoot water the distance it was supposed to and in the sufficient amounts required by the city’s Fire Department,” Wilkens said.

Alm said a steel-framed tent will be put up on a 17,000-square-foot parking lot behind the Marriott Hotel and Seaport Village for the exhibit.

The exhibit will include artwork, photographs and an audio-visual program about the Soviet Union. Fifty people accompanied the exhibition, which arrived in San Diego on Tuesday.

The San Diego display will be the third and final showing of the exhibition in the United States, Alm said.