Flooding evacuate Dining Hall

At 8:56 p.m. on Feb. 2 a sprinkler system pipe in the ceiling of the southwestern corner of the Murray-Atkins Dining Hall froze and then collapsed, prompting the alarm system to go off and a student evacuation.

Massive amounts of water spurted out of the pipe, flooding the area around Semolina's pasta station by about two inches. Three Saratoga Springs Fire Department units arrived on the scene three minutes after the incident.

All students and employees were outside of the dining hall once the fire department arrived.

"It wasn't safe to have people in the facility," said William Canney, director of Dining Services.

Once the flooding was controlled, Dining Hall supervisors, Facilities Services staff and Housekeeping staff re-entered to apply cleaning chemicals to the floor, shampoo the rug and extract the water, which spilled throughout a vast portion of the Dining Hall. By 9 p.m. all student employees left.

"It was a smooth evacuation," Canney said.

Rebecca Orbach '13 was present at the Dining Hall during that time but only witnessed people leaving the Dining Hall, not the pipe breakage.

"Everyone slowly walked out, it didn't seem urgent," she said.

A significant factor of the safe transition outside of the Dining Hall was that there was a relatively low turnout of customers that night.

Canney, however, believes that the procedure would have run smoothly at a peak hour in the daytime as well.

"I think it still would've been a smooth evacuation, just a large inconvenience," he said.

At 10:29 p.m. Dan Rodecker, director of Facilities Services, confirmed that the fire alarms and sprinkler system had been reset.

The staff bypassed the broken pipe in order for the system to function again.

"We wouldn't have re-opened with a non-functioning sprinkler system," Canney said.

No food was affected by the accident and the Dining Hall opened for breakfast at 7 a.m. the following day.

Canney contemplated opening the Spa at 7 a.m. Feb. 3 in case the Dining Hall was not ready but that was not necessary.

There were no reports of injuries or students splashed by pipe water, and no belongings were damaged.

The only tables hit had steel tops, so the wood was not warped. The Executive Chef office experienced minor flooding but no technology was damaged.

The ceiling, however, needs repair and the walls nearby the affected area will be re-painted. The new pipe had to be placed in to bypass the broken one.

The pipe rupture was caused by the frigid outside temperature that night.

"It happens from time to time," Canney said. The Dining Hall will continue operations as usual.

Following the unexpected event, hungry customers flocked to the Burgess Café. Simon Grimes, a Dining Services employee, acted as a temporary supervisor at Burgess. His co-workers at the Dining Hall forewarned him about the mass influx of students.

"You are about to get mobbed," Grimes said in reference to his conversation with co-workers.

Pre-packaged meals, chips, milk, baked goods and smoothies were in higher demand than usual. "The food got hit pretty good," Grimes said.

He had to restock milk three times and by 10:30 p.m. there were only two meals left, while by 2 a.m., when Burgess closes, there are usually a few left.

After 9 p.m. there is usually a scant amount of students purchasing goods.

"My shift [9 to 11:15 p.m.] is usually completely empty," said Sam Hoffman '13, a student Dining Services employee.

There was no momentary increase in staff to accommodate the unexpected crowd.

Grimes described the atmosphere at Burgess shortly after the pipe broke in the Dining Hall as overrun.

"I've never seen anything like this before," he said.

Despite the large crowd, by 10:30 p.m. students had a sense of what occurred at the Dining Hall and no one left hungry.

"It's not a huge inconvenience for me," Dan Baker '12 said.

While the disruption was minor, those who evacuated the Dining Hall remained confused.

"People wanted to know what happened," Grimes said.