A member of the Delaware Fire Department removes water from the second floor of Stuyvesant Hall, where a sprinkler flooded a room late Friday morning. Photo by Noah Manskar
Some residents of Stuyvesant Hall’s second floor are drying out their belongings after a sprinkler flooded the second floor Friday morning.
Director of Public Safety Robert Wood said a Stuyvesant resident placed a hanger on the sprinkler head in their room, causing the sprinkler’s glass trigger to break.
“(There was) no fire and nothing other than an accident, but a messy one,” Wood said in an email.
Public Safety evacuated the building and Buildings and Grounds staff turned off the water flowing to the room. Wood said Public Safety also talked with the students involved.
According to Meredith Dixon, Residential Life coordinator for Stuyvesant and Hayes Halls, the flooding affected 15 rooms on the second floor, one on the first floor and the building’s kitchen area. Dixon said the flooding has not displaced any students.
Delaware Fire Department personnel arrived and assited with cleanup, which Buildings and Grounds continued throughout Friday afternoon.
“They got all the wet stuff out and the water sucked up, but some of the students will have to wash and clean their own stuff,” Wood said.
Senior Amanda Caserta said Residential Life informed her that the cleanup crew sanitized and bagged wet items.
“Thankfully it wasn’t as bad as the Smith flood two years ago, and they were on top of it trying to get the water cleaned up,” she said via Facebook.
Sophomore Connor Latz, a resident assistant on the second floor of Stuyvesant Hall, said he has been helping students find their items that were set outside to dry.
Dixon said she encourages students to be cautious around sprinkler heads.
“The best thing to know is to avoid hitting them with your body or objects you are carrying (or) moving, and to avoid hanging anything from them,” she said in an email.