Jewett sprinklers triggered on sixth floor

Anita Varma Senior Editor

Jewett residents are well-versed in the routine of fire alarm evacuations. Most students consider them a mild inconvenience, and file out of the building quickly. But on Monday, Sept. 19, the fire alarm sounded for another reason—a flood.

Noah Kardos-Fein ’08, a sixth-floor Jewett resident, threw his backpack into his closet which hit a sprinkler.

“All of a sudden this black water was coming out,” said Kardos-Fein. “I went to call security, but the phone was dead, and then the fire alarm went off.” Kardos-Fein told security what happened when they arrived.

The water went through the floor, and leaked into the fifth floor. Some of the ceiling tiles on the fifth floor fell out due to the water. The carpet in the hallways of the fifth and sixth floors were damp even after Buildings and Grounds arrived and tried to dry the floors. “[B&G] were there last night trying to clean things up,” said Jewett and Lathrop House Advisor Molly MacElroy. “There's always the concern of mold when things get wet."

Kardos-Fein was covered in black residue which came out of the sprinklers with the water. “I don’t know what this stuff is, but its making me itch,” he said.

Director of Residential Life Luis Inoa said, “From what I am told, the black substance is a combination of stagnant water and grease accumulation. As for whether [this] is normal, I imagine any sprinkler system that is stagnant will produce a certain level of ‘dirty’ water.”

Kardos-Fein was moved to another empty room on the sixth floor of Jewett. Two students in the room below his, Maggie Godon-Fogelson ‘09 and Megan Hyle ‘09, were moved into an open room on the ninth floor. “It may be too early to determine how long this arrangement will last, but I think it best to proceed slowly to ensure that the rooms are safe,” said Inoa.

MacElroy noted that while the sprinklers are quite sensitive, the incident in Jewett illustrates the reason for ResLife’s rule about students not being allowed to hang items off of pipes.
“That bulb in the sprinkler is so sensitive,” said MacElroy. “I think the positive thing is that the pipes are internal [in Jewett] so you're less likely to hit them.” MacElroy noted that the pipes in some of the older dorms, such as Lathrop, stick out of the ceiling more.

According to MacElroy, this is not the first time that a sprinkler has gone off in a dorm. "It happened in Noyes my first year here [fall of 2002] on the fourth floor. The water went all the way to the house advisor's,” she said. “It was caused by a wardrobe hitting the sprinkler.”

In terms of the cost for repairing current dorm damage to Jewett, Inoa said that the College would probably pay for the damage to the rooms, ceilings, and floors. “I imagine that this is a cost absorbed by the College,” said Inoa. “Damage to students’ belongings is a matter that is currently under discussion.”