A ceiling panel soaked in water on the floor of the multipurpose room. (Photo courtesy of George Chen)

On August 15th, SP experienced a huge flood due to a broken sprinkler head in one of the rooms on the 5th floor.

The fire alarm went off around 7.30 pm and everyone had to evacuate. It turns out that somebody hung a skateboard on the sprinkler, which initiated a chain of fire emergency response and a huge waterfall from the fifth floor. As the building is on a slight incline, the rooms on the east side got more water compared to the west side.

The total cost of damage is estimated to be at least $60,000, including the cost of repair for the damaged multipurpose room floor and ceiling tiles. In addition, some residents had to deal with the odor on their carpets due to the flood. Unfortunately, SP and MIT cannot be held accountable for water damage as per the housing contract.

A letter of apology was sent to us anonymously from the person responsible for hanging the skateboard on the sprinkler:

Dear SP residents,

As the resident responsible for the flooding accident on August 15th, I want to apologize to each and every resident that was impacted by my carelessness.  I’m aware of the damage it caused and I apologize for the same. I regret the losses that you may have incurred as well as the inconvenience that it caused everyone.  I would also like to thank our house manager Jack, the housing team, and the entire support staff in helping us restore our rooms. Without their timely action, the damage could have been much worse. Please be careful not to hang anything on the fire sprinklers in your room, which is the lesson that I have learned.  As this is the beginning of the term, I hope we can move on and I wish you all the best for this academic year.

Sincerely yours,

A fellow SP resident

Iain inspects a large puddle on the floor in the multipurpose room (Photo courtesy of George Chen)

It may be confusing that the sprinkler responds to a ‘physical’ load as well as heat. This is because there is a fragile glass tube within the sprinkler filled with a liquid that expands in volume as it heats up. So the heat causes the glass tube to break, which triggers the water spray. In the same way, hanging something on the sprinkler can break the glass tube without the heat. So please do not hang anything on the sprinkler! See the video below for a demonstration:

[youtube=http://youtu.be/ekGazrZ3fls]

By Stephanie (Ahhyun) Nam