Sproul slipup sets off fire alarm

Students evacuated from hall when contractor hit sprinkler head

Jessica Chung
Published: Thursday, November 6, 2003

Students living in Sproul Hall were locked out of their residence building for about 25 minutes Wednesday afternoon due to a minor construction mishap.

A contractor working on the renovation of Sproul Hall hit a sprinkler head during construction at about 11:45 a.m., setting off the sprinkler system and fire alarm.

Second-year undeclared student Jevon Lam said, “I was a little confused. At first I thought it was a real fire, and then I thought it was a drill because no one was afraid.”

Residents evacuating the building were assisted by Housing, Office of Residential Life, and student staff members.

“It was typical protocol and everything went smoothly,” said Samuel Jones, a resident director.

Students who remained in the residence hall after the alarm went off had their BruinCards confiscated and may have to meet with the Sproul Hall resident director.

“One of my friends got written up because he stayed to put on his contacts. It wasn’t his fault. He could have hurt himself if he didn’t have his contacts in, but they took his BruinCard anyway,” Lam said.

Some students who arrived at Sproul after the alarm did not know what had occurred and entered Sproul Hall through the back entrance.

Others were upset because they had items to retrieve from their rooms before going to class and arrived late to their classes as a result.

University fire personnel arrived on the scene, assessed the situation, and left shortly thereafter.

ORL officials said this is not an uncommon occurrence and that such alarms have happened before due to construction.

“Having workers bump into or break off sprinkler heads happens from time to time and this was simply another one of those incidents,” said ORL Associate Director Jack Gibbons.

Construction resumed about an hour after the alarm had been triggered. Whether anything was damaged by the water is not yet known, though any damages will be paid for by the construction company.

With reports from Adam Foxman, Bruin Reporter.