Editor’s note: Tomas Hinckley is a resident of Peter J. Werth Tower and a weekly columnist at The Daily Campus.
University Safety responded to the University of Connecticut’s Peter J. Werth Tower late Tuesday night after high heat was detected in a residential room and sprinklers were activated.
The sprinklers were activated in response to a flammable substance ignited on one of the building’s floors, according to UConn Police and the University Fire Marshal. The act was done intentionally and two people have been arrested.
According to university spokesperson Stephanie Reitz, the first arrestee “was charged with “one count of fourth-degree criminal mischief for allegedly covering the room’s smoke detector, police said.”
The second arrestee was a minor, whose identity and charges cannot be released.
The activation of the sprinkler system caused flooding and water damage to some areas of Werth, especially areas closest to the room in which the incident took place.
“Water damage from the sprinkler activation was reported in the room where the incident occurred, and in some areas where the water seeped nearby and below,” Reitz added.
Tomas Hinckley, a first-semester UConn student and political science major, was inside the building when the incident took place and recalls seeing water spread across the floor, covering the span of the hallway.
“My friends and I were all just hanging out on our floors at night and the fire alarm goes off… We turned into the main hallway of the floor and saw lots of water coming out from one of the doors,” Hinckley said.
According to Hinckley, residents were instructed to leave the building for a while. They were eventually allowed to go back inside on the first floor, where they could see water leaking through the ceiling.
“After a while [the resident assistants] let everyone in on the first floor,and even on the ground level we can see drips of water and little streams coming down from above,” Hinckley added.
Hinckley also recalls seeing water reach the floor of several residential rooms.
“We were all pretty shocked at the water… People went into their rooms and things were soaked,” said Hinckley. “If you had anything on the floors, odds were it got wet.”
The UConn Fire Department and Facilities Operations, along with a cleaning contractor, are currently drying the hallways with dehumidifiers and industrial-size fans, according to Reitz. They have also restored the fire alarm system.