Spring Break
The Daily OrangeSprinklers flood floor, displaces Booth residents
By Melissa Daniels
Posted: 10/22/07, 1:34 AM EST Section: News
Fourth floor residents of Booth Hall were left homeless Saturday night, after a hallway fire sprinkler went off and flooded the floor.
Meera Alexander, who lives on the fourth floor of Booth, said she was sitting in her room between 11-11:30 p.m. with a friend when they heard something in the hallway that sounded like "a lot of air pressure."
"We looked out of my dorm door and there was water pouring out from the sprinkler," she said. "We were kind of panicky, so I looked to see what I could grab, and I grabbed my laptop and then we left. As we left, the water was getting browner and browner."
The fire alarms sounded immediately after, causing the entire building to evacuate. Alexander said students received all information and instructions on where to go from the residence director of Booth.
"She explained the situation and said it was going to be at least an hour before anyone could go back into the building," said Alexander, a sophomore political science major. Students were told to go wait in the DellPlain lounge on the ground floor until further notice.
Alexander said at one point, the RD came to ask fourth floor students to go to their rooms to give FIXit employees permission to enter, but the supervisor of the FIXit cleanup operation said the area was too dangerous.
"After that, we left and we were told that there was a very low chance we'd be able to stay in our rooms tonight," Alexander said. She stayed in her friend Tyrone Shaw's room in DellPlain for several hours while waiting to hear more news.
Shaw said he entered DellPlain around 12:15 a.m. and heard people talking about what had happened.
"When I came back to DellPlain, a lot of people from Booth were in the DellPlain lounge," he said.
Alexander, who eventually spent the night on a friend's futon in Watson Hall, said the FIXit team had water vacuums set up to suck out the water from the floors. After the water was gone, dehumidifiers were placed in every room to absorb moisture out of the carpets, and then each was individually power washed. None of the students interviewed knew of any serious property damage.
Alexander said the situation was handled very professionally. "I thought they did a really good job, they were very on top of things and having students notified on what was going on," she said.
When she attempted to return to her room Sunday morning at around 10 a.m., Alexander said an RD asked her for her room number, and then allowed her to re-enter the floor.
"Later in the day, they called people who still had not returned to make sure students knew they could come back," she said.
Effie Ibok, a residence adviser on the seventh floor of Booth, said students who lived on other floors of Booth were let back in the building at about 2:30 a.m.
Ibok confirmed that fourth floor residents were not allowed to re-enter their floor due to maintenance concerns until the next morning.
He also said, to the best of his knowledge, no one knew why the sprinkler went off.
Meera Alexander, who lives on the fourth floor of Booth, said she was sitting in her room between 11-11:30 p.m. with a friend when they heard something in the hallway that sounded like "a lot of air pressure."
"We looked out of my dorm door and there was water pouring out from the sprinkler," she said. "We were kind of panicky, so I looked to see what I could grab, and I grabbed my laptop and then we left. As we left, the water was getting browner and browner."
The fire alarms sounded immediately after, causing the entire building to evacuate. Alexander said students received all information and instructions on where to go from the residence director of Booth.
"She explained the situation and said it was going to be at least an hour before anyone could go back into the building," said Alexander, a sophomore political science major. Students were told to go wait in the DellPlain lounge on the ground floor until further notice.
Alexander said at one point, the RD came to ask fourth floor students to go to their rooms to give FIXit employees permission to enter, but the supervisor of the FIXit cleanup operation said the area was too dangerous.
"After that, we left and we were told that there was a very low chance we'd be able to stay in our rooms tonight," Alexander said. She stayed in her friend Tyrone Shaw's room in DellPlain for several hours while waiting to hear more news.
Shaw said he entered DellPlain around 12:15 a.m. and heard people talking about what had happened.
"When I came back to DellPlain, a lot of people from Booth were in the DellPlain lounge," he said.
Alexander, who eventually spent the night on a friend's futon in Watson Hall, said the FIXit team had water vacuums set up to suck out the water from the floors. After the water was gone, dehumidifiers were placed in every room to absorb moisture out of the carpets, and then each was individually power washed. None of the students interviewed knew of any serious property damage.
Alexander said the situation was handled very professionally. "I thought they did a really good job, they were very on top of things and having students notified on what was going on," she said.
When she attempted to return to her room Sunday morning at around 10 a.m., Alexander said an RD asked her for her room number, and then allowed her to re-enter the floor.
"Later in the day, they called people who still had not returned to make sure students knew they could come back," she said.
Effie Ibok, a residence adviser on the seventh floor of Booth, said students who lived on other floors of Booth were let back in the building at about 2:30 a.m.
Ibok confirmed that fourth floor residents were not allowed to re-enter their floor due to maintenance concerns until the next morning.
He also said, to the best of his knowledge, no one knew why the sprinkler went off.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Dominick Kasmauskas
posted 10/24/07 @ 11:17 AM EST
"...no one knew why the fire sprinkler went off (activated")?
These proven life safety devices rarely, RARELY ever just activate for no reason. Due to the recorded incidents of human tampering with false fire sprinkler activations I would speculate that "someone" knows what happened. (Continued…)
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