Radiator causes minor flood in HRS

Dan Kaplan missed Cheers last night. He was watching The Simpsons in his first-floor High Rise South room, when, next thing he knew, he was surrounded by hot black water gushing from his broken radiator. "We were just watching television," the College sophomore said. "The plumber came to fix the heat. All of a sudden a pipe burst and black oil or water started pouring all over the place. There were two inches of stuff all over the place." The flood began when a valve of the radiator blew off while a Physical Plant repairman was trying to fix it. Kaplan said the repairman came to fix the radiator in his bedroom because the heat was not working. The repairman first dismantled the radiator in his roommate's bedroom and, when he could not fix it, went on to Kaplan's room. Both steam and hot water came out of the radiator, Kaplan said. The plumber left the room and came back ten minutes later with another repairman who knew how to shut the water off. The water also leaked into the lobby, where about 15 people were watching TV, and next door to the living room of room 115, which was covered by a white rug that belonged to the students. Physical Plant employee Bill Rivel, who would not give the name of the repairman, said it was too early to estimate the damage caused by the flood. He said he does not know if it leaked down to the basement, but said that there was nothing in the basement that could be harmed. Although the wall by the radiator and curtain hanging on the window above it were blackened, Kaplan said he does not think his property was damaged because most of the water landed on the floor and was absorbed by the carpet. Although he was disappointed that he missed Cheers, Kaplan was not very upset by the incident. He even said he liked the color of the rug better after the flood. "The heat works now," Kaplan said. "It's just not as bad as we thought it would be. I think I'll be able to stay in here tonight." College senior Josh Goldsmith was sitting on a sofa in the lobby, helping a student with her paper, when the leak began. "All of a sudden without warning, I think, 'It's raining,' " Goldsmith said. "Then I realized it was black rain and coming inside. The ceiling started collapsing. I had to rescue my advisee." Zahid Rahman, a Wharton junior who was watching The Simpsons, said that the water "kept pouring for half an hour" and while the leak grew progressively worse, the ceiling tiles "just started falling one by one." The puddle, which the lobby rug slowly absorbed, spread about 15 feet into the mail room.