News Brief: Tuesday, January 25, 2000

Burst pipe causes problems in Quad The entire Quad fire warning system was inoperable yesterday, University Police said. As of last night, police did not know when full service to the fire control systems would be restored. Police believe that Sunday's mechanical chain reaction caused the damage to the malfunctioning system. Sources close to the situation said that additional Spectaguards would be dispatched to the approximately 1,500-resident facility to monitor the Quad in the case of any possible fires or other emergencies. In addition, University Police will also continue their regular patrols of the area. "If anything goes wrong, we'll have enough people over there to see it," said one person familiar with the situation. Quad fire alarms went off for several hours Sunday night after the pipe burst. Some of the dormitories were evacuated briefly. -- Jonathan Margulies