The cause of last week's flood in Goodyear Hall has been determined, and all students affected have returned to their rooms.
The confirmed cause of Friday night's flood was student misconduct, explained Joseph Krakowiak, director of University Residence Halls & Apartments.
"The incident was caused by a student throwing a football," Krakowiak said.
The football struck a fire sprinkler around 7:30 p.m., which knocked it off of the pipe and caused water to discharge at more than 20 gallons per second, according to Krakowiak. The flood affected floors three through nine at varying rates.
"I'd say about 24 students in about 12 rooms were severely affected," Krakowiak said.
Students were evacuated very quickly after the flood began, according to Krakowiak.
"We have a fire suppression system. When it is activated, there is a flow sensor that detects water coming from sprinklers," Krakowiak said. "It said there was an emergency in the building. It announced [the emergency] and all the lights in the building flashed. All the [resident advisers] go from floor to floor to make sure everyone's evacuated."
University Police and the Buffalo Fire Department then received a signal notifying them of an emergency at Goodyear Hall. They closed the building off to investigate the cause of the incident.
During this time, students were instructed to head to a nearby food service area or to Clement Hall until it was safe to return, Krakowiak said.
"According to law, you can't go back into the building until the systems are reinstated," Krakowiak said. "If you had something plugged in and it was in two inches of water, you wouldn't want to [return to your room due to the risk of electrical shock]."
Maintenance workers were called in to turn off power and clean up the water.
"Half of the building was OK and half the students were returned to their rooms by 9:30 p.m.," Krakowiak said. "The other half was back by midnight or 1 a.m."
Several students compared the flood to another incident that recently occurred in Goodyear. However, the incidents were unrelated and had different causes, according to Krakowiak.
"One of the heating systems let go and it didn't do anywhere near as much damage as this one did, except for the room where it happened," Krakowiak said.
The university has no plans to compensate students for any damage sustained during the flood because it was caused by student behavior, according to Krakowiak.
"This is an incident caused by student behavior, so there's no negligence caused by the university or the state," Krakowiak said. "The advice we've given them is to enter an insurance claim."
The student that caused the flood was referred to the Student-Wide Judiciary.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
