An occurrence on Saturday in Meadows disrupted nearly the entire dorm. Two unidentified students, while tossing a ball around, accidentally hit a sprinkler nozzle, causing fire alarms to sound off and students to evacuate for quite some time.
Most students originally speculated that the fire alarms were due to some sort of fire drill. It became apparent after firefighters and Public Safety Officers rapidly investigated the occurrence that it was no drill. While fortunately no fire occurred, some damage was done.
Two students who were simply playing a game a catch accidentally caused a huge inconvenience for students throughout the dorm. “A football was being thrown and it accidentally hit a sprinkler nozzle and a glass piece in it, which holds the water back, broke,” said Darshil Rathod ’19. “That caused the alarm to go off.”
Because the glass piece in the sprinkler was broken, it began slightly flooding certain areas of Meadows West. Students waited outside for far over an hour, while Public Safety and firefighters handled the situation. Much of the crowd grew annoyed from the extended wait, especially those who were forced to leave the dorms in only pajamas or simply towels from showering. Even after the students were let back in the dorm, the alarm went off four more times briefly. This happened over a two-hour period in order to test the alarm system. The occurrence as a whole could have damaged property and disrupted dozens of students.
“[My friends and I] were cooking at the time of the alarm, so yeah it definitely inconvenienced us,” Rathod said.
Currently heavy-duty dehumidifiers, which are somewhat loud, have been placed throughout Meadows West to make sure the floors do not get damp or moist from the occurrence.
