NEWS

FAU dorm Heritage Park Towers was evacuated following a fire alarm around 5:30 p.m.

Boca Raton Fire Rescue and FAU police arrived on the scene. Upon investigation, a sprinkler was found to have triggered a false alarm. The ensuing sprinkler discharge left the second floor of the north tower flooded, according to an FAU police officer on the scene.

The FAU police will continue to monitor the building every 30 minutes to check for fires until the Boca Raton Fire Rescue declares the building safe.

Update (6:48 p.m.):

A UP reporter asked HPT resident assistants for comments or information on the event, and were given no comment. Comments made by RAs and maintenance workers placed the time of re-opening anywhere from 7:15 p.m. to 9:45 p.m.

From what we can determine from students living in HPT, sprinklers only went off in one suite, though the water may have moved down the hall into other rooms.

Freshman Joe Ullman, a resident of the north tower, said, “The alarm didn’t sound like any other alarm I’ve ever been through.” He went on to say that, though he didn’t see any sprinklers going off, he heard the opposite end of his floor was flooded.

Christian Cotler, freshman music major, lived down the hall from the affected room.  He said, “I looked out in the hallway and it was completely flooded… People were trying to stop the flow with towels.”

A student identified as “Russell,” who a source said lives in the affected room, said by phone that he was gone when the alarm sounded, but all his suitemates’ cellphones were flooded, and were thus unable to be reached for comment.

Update (7:38 p.m.):

Students are allowed back into HPT, though rooms affected by the flooding are still closed and are currently considered a crime scene.

Freshman pre-business major Andres Briones said he didn’t know the cause of the sprinkler malfunction. He told the UP, “I was just about to leave my room, and all of a sudden I hear a pop, and I hear my suitemate go, ‘Oh shit!'”

Briones went on to say that he saw a “waterfall of black water coming out” of his suitemate’s room.

Director of Housing Jill Eckardt held an impromptu meeting with residents affected by the flooding in a multipurpose room. She declined to comment on the situation.

Briones, who was in the meeting, said he was told that housing would try to relocate the affected students elsewhere in housing.