A sprinkler line burst in the south entry to the Grewcock Student Union on Wednesday at 3:05 p.m. What started as a few drops quickly turned into a flood of water that collapsed ceiling tiles, flooded the entrance and seeped out from underneath the door into the student activities office and the union itself.
“Come to find out, the sprinkler line had frozen and expanded the pipe system and eventually caused the line to burst,” Student Activities Director Amanda Bigney said. “Thanks to the very speedy maintenance team, the problem was taken care of within an hour and a half.”
Maintenance pumped water out of the entryway and set up fans to dry the floor.
Junior Dakota Michael was approaching the union from the library when he heard the alarm going off.
“I was trying to figure out where it was coming from and approached the doors,”Michael said. “As I got close, it started to sound like a rainforest or a torrential downpour.”
In A.J.’s Cafe, sophomore Naomi Virnelson had just ordered coffee when she heard the alarm.
“See, I was just concerned because the alarm had gone off after I had paid for my coffee but before I had gotten it,” Virnelson said.
At the south entrance to the Student Union, sophomores Ilana Goehner, Albert Nakayama, and Minte Christiansen stood huddled together in the cold after exiting the building.
“Don’t go in there, you could die!” Nakayama shouted to students trying to enter the union.
“It’s not new to us. We’ve experienced this before,” Christiansen said.
“I heard it was also in Amanda Bigney’s office,” Nakayama said. “I just hope the mail didn’t get ruined.”
Goehner feared SAGA would be closed for dinner, and said the school should compensate for such an inconvenience to students.
“I think that the school should buy Domino’s pizza for every student for dinner this evening,” Goehner said.
“A pipe burst somewhere, so they’re not letting people in on the south side,” freshman William Persson said. “Also, it smells really bad.”