The good news is, the sprinklers in the Quadrangle are working properly.
In two separate incidents over winter break, Quad fire sprinklers discharged gallons of water into two student rooms, destroying many of the residents's possessions.
The sprinklers were set off not by fires, but likely by extremely hot air expelled by air conditioning units, according to Director for Facilities Services Jim Bean.
"We had hot water going into the new fan-cool units," Bean said. "The water going through there was too hot. It released hot air and the sprinkler head that was located adjacent to the fan-cool unit responded... and went off as it should.
"I would say we're 99 percent sure that was the cause of both incidents that occurred," Bean continued.
The first flood occurred slightly before 5:30 a.m. on Dec. 28, when a sprinkler in a first-floor Community House room discharged. No students were in the building at the time, so Quad Area Coordinator for Housing and Conference Services Allison Adcock notified the residents of the incident via e-mail.
Adcock also alerted the two students who live in the room where the sprinkler went off that their room was the epicenter of the deluge.
But when College freshman Jack Altura returned to his room after the break, he was still dismayed by what he found.
"I came back to an absolute disaster," Altura said. "The room was left in an absolute mess... it smelled so bad, ask anybody, oh, my God, it smelled so bad."
There were "huge colonies of mold" on Altura's books, clothing and sheets, and his computer now only works for a few minutes at a time before crashing.
The second sprinkler went off at about 9:30 p.m. on Jan. 6 in a first-floor Ware College House room.
College freshman Alanna Chang was two rooms away when she heard the fire alarm in her hall go off. She went back to her room to get her coat and discovered the sprinkler releasing gallons of water into her room.
Chang had just bought a new computer and CD player, which were damaged by the flood, along with her other electronic equipment. Most of her other possessions escaped relatively unscathed, aside from being drenched.
"Everything was really wet and... stained from the rust on the pipes," Chang said.
Both Altura's roommate, Engineering freshman Ysiad Ferreiras, and Chang are filing reimbursement requests with the University's Office of Risk Management.
Risk Management Associate Director Erika Gross declined to speak about the specific incidents, but she did say that the University will not necessarily be liable for the damages in students' rooms.
"The very fact that the sprinkler went off does not make the University responsible," Gross said.
Neither Adcock nor Bean could clarify exactly how much water was discharged in the two incidents, but Adcock said the sprinklers are capable of expelling more than 50 gallons per minute.
Bean said that the water travelling through the cooling system had been about 160 degrees Fahrenheit, which made the air released from the units about 150 F. The sprinklers are activated when the air reaches a temperature of 135 F.
The water in the system has now been lowered to 120 F, which Bean said should prevent future sprinkler mishaps.
