Isn't it ironic?

One of my pet peeves is the abuse of the term "ironic." Sometimes I'm not even sure if I or anyone else really knows exactly what irony is. However, when I saw this article in The Record from Mahwah, New Jersey, I was hopeful that we could all just get along.

"A malfunctioning smoke detector started a fire Thursday in a Franklin Crossings condominium, police said... "

Of course, the beautiful thing about the English language is that if people misuse a word enough, it takes on that new meaning. It's a self-correcting system.