Due to water damage, residents in both dorms who were impacted were asked to evacuate their rooms until the following day as staff from the custodial department and Physical Plant worked to remove water, address damage and reset the fire alarm. According to Director of Facilities Planning and Management James Brassord, workers extracted water from the saturated floors using dehumidifiers, fans and other equipment.
The College has agreed to replace the carpeting with linol floors in the basement of Newport because four students' rooms were flooded. Students in Newport will also be compensated for damage to their personal items.
Director of Residential Life Charri Boykin-East explained that the damage situation was different in Newport than in Tyler. "[Since] it went off in a particular room in the basement, the water didn't trickle down [the hallways] like it did in Tyler," she said.
The carpeting will not be replaced. Workers have disinfected and deodorized the carpets in the dorm. Certain areas remain slightly damp, and workers are running fans and dehumidifiers in the dorm.
Boykin-East indicated that student safety was the main concern for the College. "So much water ended up going into electrical sockets and the panel of the fire system," she said. "We were not able to get the fire system working that night, [so it was] unsafe for students [to stay in the dorm]."
Brassord said that the efficiency of the Physical Plant and the Environmental Health and Safety Offices allowed for a prompt response to the flooding incidents. Additionally, he said that there should be no long-term adverse effects from the water, and that repairs in the future will be made if necessary.
Eddie Ramos '08, a Tyler resident, said that the situation happened at an inopportune moment but was handled well. "It wasn't terrible-unfortunately it happened at a very inconvenient time for most people, as we were all getting ready to go out," he said. "All in all the police, the firemen and the administration seem to have dealt with the situation quite well."
Erika Sams '08, a Newport resident, was particularly upset when she saw the damage to her own room. "I cried when I saw my teddy bear doing the dead man's float," she said. Another resident of Newport, Andrea Spakauskas '08, said she was worried that a fire may have set off the sprinkler when she saw water pouring out of a room.
Both Sams and Spakauskas are pleased with the College's response to the damage. "I feel like the College is doing the best job it can. It's unfortunate that some of us have been inconvenienced, but these things happen. It's no one's fault," said Spakauskas.
Boykin-East said that the incident in Tyler was entirely accidental. "I'm still trying to connect all the dots, but a student has come forward who said that he 'accidentally brushed' it," she said.
The sprinkler activation in Newport, while also accidental, occurred under a different set of circumstances. "We looked for a correlation between [what happened at] Newport and Tyler, and there wasn't one," explained Brassord. He explained that it is exceedingly rare for fire sprinklers to go off.
Nevertheless, Boykin-East cautioned that this could happen in other dorms. "If students are horsing around and playing basketball or other games in the hall it could easily happen [again]," she said.
If a fire is present, the resulting rise in temperature will heat liquid inside the glass bulb that is present in all quick-response sprinklers in the dormitories. When the liquid heats to 155 F, the liquid boils, causing the glass to shatter, and the sprinkler to activate.
Environmental Health and Safety Manager Richard Mears explained that nothing should ever be hung from the sprinklers or be disturbed in any way. However, Mears said that merely touching a sprinkler will not set it off. "You have to hit it fairly hard to hit the glass bulb," he explained. According to Mears, the sprinklers discharge from 22 to 30 gallons per minute.
Mears dispelled a prevailing misconception about fire sprinklers. "If one goes off, they all don't go off," he said. "Only the sprinkler directly over the fire is activated and will go off."
Brassord said that this warning will be echoed in an e-mail sent to all students via their resident counselors.