Dean of Men Aaron Petersen and the Winston Churchill statue survey the damage.
Ellie Fromm | The Collegian

The union closed Wednesday afternoon due to flooding after a fire-suppression pipe froze and broke because of exposure during construction, according to Vice President for Administration Richard Péwé. A couple of inches of water covered parts of AJ’s Café, the formal lounge, and the hallways near the bookstore.

Fire alarms sounded in the William L. and Berniece E. Grewcock Student Union at about 3:50 p.m. on Jan. 21, prompting an evacuation of the building. There was no fire.

The flood follows a similar incident exactly seven years ago, when a pipe in the emergency sprinkler system broke on Jan. 21, 2019, causing water to “pour” from the ceiling near the old union entrance, as previously reported by The Collegian.

“I was in the union when the fire alarm sound went off, and I didn’t know what it was at all,” senior Avery Nowowiejski said. “I just left. It was the slowest evacuation I’ve ever seen.”

The building closed following the evacuation, and is expected to reopen once professional cleaning and a safety check are complete. The safety check will test conditions like air quality.

“I just assumed it was a fire drill at first, so I didn’t think anything of it until I saw water all over the floor when I was walking outside,” said junior Zanna Hughes, who was in the union when the fire alarms sounded.”

Dinner on Wednesday was served in the Searle Center. The college also planned to serve breakfast at the Searle Center on Thursday morning and, at press time, had not announced lunch plans for Thursday.

“I got the cash register set up, and nobody got it,” sophomore Nathan Salemink, who worked at Searle on Wednesday night, said. “I’ve got all these takeout boxes here if people want to get takeout, but nobody’s asked for a takeout box. So, I’m just like, ‘Okay, I just have a bunch of takeout boxes.’”

Fire suppression pipes are pipelines, typically colored red, designed for fire-extinguishing substances. They usually contain chemicals, foam, or gas, according to Pye Barker Fire & Safety, a professional organization for fire and security experts.

“Our maintenance team is working quickly to clean the area and restore the suppression system,” Péwé said in an email to students Wednesday evening. “Students will not be able to use the Grewcock Union areas until we provide the all clear.”

The bookstore also flooded on March 26, 2014, because of a broken pipe. The south entrance of the union flooded, causing ceiling tiles to collapse, due to a frozen sprinkler line on Jan. 29, 2014, and this same sprinkler head broke again on Feb. 8, 2014. The union’s sprinkler head burst and flooded the dining hall with a few inches of water in 2013, costing the college around $50,000.

“I guess that seven years, seven is a biblical number,” senior Elena Bull said. “That’s crazy though. Wow. You should take that to the probability class or something.”