Airsoft pellet accident causes flooding in Davis Hall
Students at Davis Hall were forced out of their rooms Tuesday night due to an emergency sprinkler that was accidentally set off on the fourth floor.
Sage Long, whose apartment flooded, said she was sitting in her dorm with some neighbors at about 9 p.m. when one of the resident males began shooting an airsoft gun.
A pellet ricocheted off the pumpkin he was shooting, hitting and breaking the glass bulb on the emergency sprinkler head, according to housing coordinator Katie Bohm.
“It kind of just went everywhere, like Titanic when the wall blew in,” said Long, a freshman majoring in health education. “And then within like a minute, it was already up to my ankles.”
Katie Pehrson who lives in the apartment directly below Long, said she and her roommate heard screaming coming from upstairs. Then they saw the water coming in from the ceiling.
“We were just like, ‘There’s a waterfall in our kitchen,'” said Pehrson, a freshman majoring in family, consumer and human development. After the fire alarms went off, Pehrson said they were evacuated from the building.
Jordan Ames, the resident assistant at Davis, notified on-call maintenance who arrived shortly. Bohm said it took eight minutes to turn off the sprinkler, which released several gallons of water per second.
“We came back in and we had like three inches of standing water in our living room area,” Pehrson said.
Pehrson said the water went all the way down to the main floor, soaking the carpets and ceilings.
Steven Jenson, executive director of Housing and Residence Life, said the fire department, police and on call maintenance staff were all very quick to respond.
“We hired ARS to come in with some extraction equipment and hurried to suck up all the water as best we could,” Jenson said. “Then we put a bunch of fans in there to dry things out.”
Pehrson said the water got the floor under her bed wet and had soaked through the walls of her roommate’s closet.
“They have three big fans in there and it stinks really bad,” Pehrson said.
According to Jenson, a total of six apartments were affected by the accident.
Jenson said safety is very important on campus, so there are sprinklers in all of the student housing in case of fire.
“We don’t want any loss of life,” Jenson said.
Jenson said the affected students were unable to sleep in their dorms that night due to the water damage. He said Housing offered them alternative accommodations, but the students declined.
“It’s a really close-knit community there in Davis Hall and so they chose to stay in the building rather than being separated and move to different parts of the campus,” Jenson said. “They worked it out among themselves. “Long said she and her roommates stayed with their neighbors and Pehrson said she slept on the couch in the hall.
Jenson said weapons are not allowed in the dorms, but that the airsoft gun that caused the accident is considered a toy. He said many students own similar toys, especially with Human vs. Zombies games happening this week.
“But it was an accident,” Jenson said. “We realize those things happen, but unfortunately it’s going to impact several people.”
Jenson said they need a few more days to allow things to dry out before they can assess the situation, but that they anticipate considerable damage.
“We’re just in the process of filing an insurance claim right now, but we can’t even officially do that for the next couple weeks,” Jenson said. “We need to make sure we assess all the damages that result from it. That’s why we brought those experts in to try and get it cleaned up as quickly as we could.”
Jenson said they always encourage students to have renter’s insurance, and this is a good reminder. He said that when accidents like these happen, it’s the financial responsibility of the student. Renter’s insurance is inexpensive and covers the cost of damage to the student’s personal property as well, Jenson said.
According to Jenson, Housing will file a claim with the state of Utah, and it is then up to the state to determine if the person who caused the accident should be responsible.
“So that part of it is kind of out of our control,” Jensen said.
– tmera.bradley@aggiemail.usu.edu
RESIDENTS OF DAVIS HALL quickly removed items from their dorm rooms to the hallway Tuesday night after an airsoft pellet set off a fire sprinkler. JESSICA FIFE photos