Pipe soaks, alarms in Quadrangle

A broken sprinkler pipe set off four fire alarms and flooded the basements of four residences in the Quadrangle yesterday. According to Physical Plant officials, the cold temperatures caused the pipe to freeze and then crack. The break set off the alarms in Ashurst, Magee, Cleeman, and Thomas Penn at 2:30 p.m. and began the flooding. College junior Nikki Taylor, the resident advisor on duty, said the water covered the entire basement area. "The water was above the ankles in some of the rooms," Taylor said. "Some rooms were locked where there was flooding, but I didn't have the keys. I just made sure there was no problem with anyone's health." Taylor said that Physical Plant and the fire department responded to the original alarm and used a sump pump to remove the excess water. She added that she was surprised with how quickly they were finished. At 6 p.m. yesterday, the alarms rang again and forced students to evacuate their buildings. The second occurrence was also a result of the sprinkler pipe problem. Physical Plant officials said the second alarm was set off when they were refilling the sprinkler system with water. At 7:30 p.m. last night, the basement was still covered with puddles of water and water was still dripping from parts of the piping in the ceiling, but no one was in the basement area working to clean the area. But last night, according to Physical Plant officials, plumbers had repaired the pipe and workers were cleaning the area. Many residents of the affected buildings were upset that they had not been notified about the problem and expressed their overall displeasure with the frequent false fire alarms. "This section of the Quad has had frequent amounts [of false fire alarms]," College freshman Michael Adelstein said yesterday. "We're out in the cold all the time. If they have a problem with the sprinklers, the RAs should be notified at least. They could have some courtesy. Going out in to the cold every other hour is not something I want to do on a Sunday." "It's annoying when the alarms go off," said College freshman Deb Heller. "You don't think it's real because we've had so many false alarms in the past. It's a dangerous situation. It would be nice if we knew what was going on."