Some Boland Hall residents found a new addition to their room Saturday afternoon: water.
According to Tara Hart, director of Housing & Residence Life, a sprinkler head was activated in a room on the Boland 2 South wing at approximately 3:20 p.m.
"The sprinkler head was activated by horseplay within the room," Hart said.
According to Gary Christie, assistant director of Public Safety and Security, investigation into the incident showed a second floor resident was playing with a remote controlled toy that shot plastic BBs. One of the BBs hit the sprinkler head in the resident's room.
"This caused the sprinkler to activate and 40 gallons of water per minute were discharged from the sprinkler," Christie said.
According to Hart and Christie, the sprinkler affected rooms of 13 students on the first and second floor of Boland. Christie said hallways and the Pirate Cellar were affected, as well, before the fire department was able to shut off the water.
Freshman Matt Dinneny was one of the students whose room was affected by the flooding.
Dinneny, who lives on the second floor of Boland, lived next to the room where the sprinkler was activated.
"I had three inches of water in my room," Dinneny said. "I had to get rid of my phone charger, rug, laptop charger, some shoes and some food."
According to Dinneny, those affected by the water wrote a list of what was damaged and gave it to HRL.
"HRL contacted the impacted students to advise them," Hart said.
Housekeeping also responded to provide "needed services," according to Hart.
"I'm pretty upset that I lost a few of my items," Dinneny said. "It has just been a hassle."
According to Christie, Community Development is addressing the conduct of the individual who activated the sprinkler head.
Jessica Sutcliffe can be reached at jessica.sutcliffe@student.shu.edu.
Ashley Duvall can be reached at ashley.duvall@student.shu.edu.
