A pipe burst in the front entryway of Harrison College House yesterday morning, forcing students to avoid the lobby area for much of the day.
"Once again we had water coming down [after] a sprinkler pipe broke," Executive Director of Operations Mike Coleman said.
The broken sprinkler pipe triggered several fire alarms, and the fire department responded to the call, according to Coleman.
Coleman said warmer temperatures -- which reached 34 degrees -- often cause problems, as frozen pipes sometimes burst when they thaw.
"You see this a lot in entryways and doorways," he said.
Facilities will "determine why a pipe would freeze inside a room like that," Coleman said. "At this point, that's all we can do."
College senior Devon Mackenzie, who lives on the 21st floor of Harrison, said a fire alarm woke her at 9:40 a.m. A voice over the loudspeaker told students to move into the stairwells and not to use the lobby as an exit.
"There was a guard outside telling people to go around" the building, Mackenzie said, adding that another guard was checking PennCards at the entrance to the west stairwell.
Students were advised not to go below the first floor when exiting the building in an e-mail from Frank Pellicone, the house dean.
"Directors of departments across the University are working to restore operations to the peaceful home that we have come to know and love," Pellicone wrote. "Please remain alert throughout the day."
An e-mail from building manager Barry Lasley at 4 p.m. informed students that the front entrance to Harrison was open again.
As of Tuesday night, Mackenzie said she had received seven e-mails from Housing and Conference Services regarding the flooding problem, the fire alarms and the elevators, which were affected by the flooding.
A $26.5 million renovation on the building was completed this summer, but Mackenzie called the changes "cosmetic."
"Everything else in the building is just sort of falling apart," Mackenzie said, referring to the constant elevator problems and the frequent fire alarms.
Hamilton College House faced a similar problem on Monday when a burst pipe caused both flooding and a power outage that lasted from about 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. according to Coleman.
"DuBois College House was also impacted by that," Coleman said, noting that the power feed for DuBois comes from Hamilton.
Facilities spent much of Monday isolating the circuit interruption, which was caused by the frozen pipe in the mechanical room. The work continued into yesterday morning, Coleman said.
With the cold weather, Coleman acknowledged that there is "always a possibility" power could be interrupted again.
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