Cold weather, propped door led to disaster in dorm

By: Johnathan Skidmore
Copy Layout Editor

At approximately 12:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 5th, several residents and resident assistants received a nasty surprise. One of the steam heaters in The North Hall ruptured, causing a combination of high pressured water and steam to fill one of the foyers in the residence hall.

The water quickly moved throughout the building, flooding several residential rooms, the hallway and the kitchen in the basement.

According to one resident of The North Hall, Kristen Meyer, the heater exploded because someone had changed the setting on the thermostat from “auto” to “high.” This made the heater ignore the thermostat, causing it to run indefinitely. “The hallway looked like a stage with an overpowering fog machine - a very wet, squishy stage,” said Meyer.

According to resident assistant Ian Van Anden, this was complicated by the fact that another resident had propped the outside door open, causing the pipes to freeze.

“Maintenance found a block of wood that they believed may have been used to block a door open,” said hall director of The North Hall Richard Harrod. The combination of the cold pipe and the hot steam caused the pipe to burst, spraying water everywhere.

Luckily, the resident assistants Dan Scharlau and Valerie Daves, accompanied by Van Anden, were quick to arrive on the scene, helping the residents “bail out” the hallways and rooms with a tiny handheld wet vacuum, towels and a mop.

Unfortunately, the maintenance staff was on lunch for the beginning of the incident and could not be contacted until they returned. The residents and resident assistance continued their attempts at cleaning up the water as the pump for the heater intermittently sprayed hot water. Had nothing been done,“we would have been canoeing down the hallways in 140 degree water,” said Van Anden.

As soon as maintenance returned from lunch, they shut off the circuit to the heater and went to work with industrial wet vacuums and large fans. By 7 p.m., the residents were all able to return their furniture to their rooms. The heater has been replaced with an older model and the residents can once again enjoy dry, heated hallways, “permitting that no one props the doors open again,” said Van Anden.