Sprinkler Malfunction Causes Damage, Classes Relocate

A sensor failure early this morning caused the sprinklers to activate in the orchestra room, flooding the orchestra room and adjoining room 213. The faulty sensor reported that the room was at a temperature of 33 degrees, causing the room to be heated to 165 degrees. At that temperature, the sprinklers were activated and an alarm was sounded.

Since the janitorial staff does not arrive at school until 5 am, the fire department was notified and arrived on the scene, where they deactivated the sprinklers. Janitors arrived at 5 am and began to inspect the damage.

“There were several inches of standing water,” Principal Karl Krawitz said. Krawitz arrived around 6 am and was immediately notified of the incident. “The entire room was soaked by the sprinklers.”

The water caused damage in both rooms. A wooden storage cabinet used for storing violins was ruined by the water, but the violins and cases inside the cabinet were unharmed. Sound panels mounted on the walls were also soaked, and will be inspected for damage once the entire room is dried. Several computers and printers were soaked, along with folders of sheet music and pieces of Frequent Friday sets.

“A lot of the damage is to the sheet music and the set,” theatre teacher Tom Defeo said. “Students will be the ones going through and cleaning that up, since they know what everything is and what’s important.”

Janitorial staff is now engaged in a process with the carpets called extracting. The carpets will be shampooed, disinfected and dried before they can be assessed for water damage, and damaged carpet tiles might have to be replaced.

Water also leaked into room 213, a neighboring room that is used for theatre classes and rehearsing Frequent Fridays. Theatre classes were relocated to the Little Theatre and the auditorium for today and tomorrow. Orchestra classes were relocated to the choir room.

“The orchestra kids were pretty bummed, since they like to play every day,” Defeo said. “It’s not too much of a problem for the theatre kids, because they’re flexible and we don’t need a specific room, but Josh [Light] is pretty nervous because of his Frequent Friday.”

Senior Josh Light is currently relocating the rehearsals of his Frequent Friday, A Devil Inside, to the Little Theatre. He is planning on also using the Little Theatre as a backup location for his show, which is scheduled for this Friday.

“I don’t know as of yet if I can use 213 for my show,” Light said. “So I’m tentatively changing my location to the Little Theatre because it will be easier to use for rehearsing and performing.”

Dr. Krawitz says that the rooms will be back in use by Wednesday, October 15 for College Night, and classes will return to their regular locations by Thursday, October 16.

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