Hundreds of gallons of dirty water poured into Biever’s Six South wing when a student accidentally activated a fire sprinkler by hanging her laundry on a clothes hanger to dry on the sprinkler head.

Minimal damage was caused by the Feb. 13 inundation, but Residential Life, University Police and Physical Plant staff were left scrambling to contain the water, which at one point was a foot deep in the student’s room.

“I opened the door to see what was going on and the whole room was full of water,” said Lyse Jackson, psychology junior and Six South residential assistant. “It looked kind of light brown – it wasn’t clean water. It smelled funny; it’s been in the sprinkler for years.”

At 8:55 p.m., the room’s door hit the clothes hanger, which knocked out the component of the sprinkler that melts during a fire and the sprinkler-as well as the building’s fire alarm-went off.

Nolan Hughes, a computer science sophomore who was working the radios that night for Res Life, said that he first heard of the sprinklers when Jackson started calling on the radios “like it was nobody’s business.”

“You could hear the fire alarm going off in the background. The desk assistant couldn’t hear the radio because of the alarm,” Hughes said. “I got on the radio and asked if she needed help. She replied that she most certainly did.”

When Hughes arrived on the sixth floor, water was “pouring out the bottom and sides of the door.”

He agreed with Jackson’s assessment of the water.

“It was kind of brown – definitely kind of gross.”

According to the National Fire Sprinkler Association’s Web site, commercial fire sprinklers, such as the ones in Biever, typically pour out 150 to 300 gallons of water per minute, and Hughes said the sprinkler was on for at least five minutes before Physical Plant was able to shut the pipes.

Because water in the fire sprinklers is kept under constant high pressure and does not circulate, the water had likely been in the pipes since Biever was renovated in 2000.

By the time Physical Plant shut off the water, there were at least 10 staff members working to control the water, using squeegees to push the water into the bathroom, which has a drain.

“We looked like a band of Tom Sawyers, with our pants rolled up to our knees, barefoot, trying to push the water into the bathrooms,” said Casey Revoir, a history senior and a Biever RA.

Although the water only entered three student rooms, it dripped through the ceilings down to the first floor – through all the RA’s rooms.

Revoir recalls seeing her room: “It was going straight down the wall – it was a waterfall effect.”

Revoir said the standing water was pushed to the bathroom by 10:30 p.m., more than an hour and a half after the sprinklers went off. At that point, custodians began working to dry the hallways, using water-sucking vacuums and enormous fans, which would run for two days.

Despite the huge amount of water, none of the student’s possessions were ruined.

“It’s amazing there’s no damage,” said Jackson. “Because only the sprinkler by the door went off, she washed her sheets and clothes and we put in two new mattresses.”

She credits the composition of the building to the minimal damage.

“Because Biever is made out of brick and concrete, you can’t really damage the sheetrock,” she said.

Physical Plant is still working to assess the damage, and did not return The Maroon’s calls at press time.

Kelly Brown can be reached at [email protected].