Iowa State’s sense of community became especially apparent when a fire sprinkler mishap caused Birch-Welch-Roberts Hall residents to experience a fire alarm complete with property damage.

It was caused not by fire, however, but a malfunction in the hall’s sprinkler system.

Joel Hochstein, residence hall coordinator and hall director for BWR, explained the issue.

“From my understanding, students were throwing a football in the hallway,” Hochstein said. “The football hit the sprinkler head, which set off the fire alarm and started the discharge of water.”

The incident occurred on the third floor of Roberts Hall, and before leaving the building, students on the third floor began putting towels in front of their doors to prevent the spread of the water.

“I also noticed that [when the fire department assessed the situation], they had these rubber strips that they put in front of the doors to prevent the water from going into the rooms,” Hochstein said. “Then their priority became locating and shutting off the water to the sprinkler system.”

The majority of the damage, however, did not occur on the third floor but the second floor.

“That is due to the fact that [students] on the third floor saw things … and picked things up off the floor before they left,” Hochstein said. “Whereas folks on the second floor really had no idea what was going on.”

Students waited outside for an hour after the incident occurred before they were told it was safe to enter the building.

“Once [my roommate and I] got back into the room, we saw water pouring out of the light fixture and coming down the walls,” said Ben Swenson, junior in construction engineering and a resident of the second floor of Welch Hall.

“We tried to get the electronics out of the way first, then used garbage cans to catch the water,” he said.

Swenson also commented on how helpful the BWR community was during the downpour. “There were a lot of people from the rooms around me that had damage themselves that came over to help me,” he said.

Swenson later went on to say he went around after the water problem to find the owners of the three to four garbage cans that were left in his room.

Josh Vosatka, junior in industrial engineering and one of the three presidents of second floor Welch and Swenson’s roommate, also commented on how helpful the BWR community was at reacting to the situation.

“There were a lot of people that came around and offered help,” Vosatka said. “[Whether it was] garbage cans or moving things out of the room, taking inventory and offering to let us stay in their room for a night … the BWR community really came together.”

Vosatka and Swenson’s ceiling began to peel and slightly bow in some areas due to the water damage.

Hochstein walked around the building after the water had been shut off. He said he saw “the teamwork and general caring nature of students who didn’t even live in the house.”

“I think that’s one of the best things about living on campus, more specifically BWR, are those close-knit relationships that you form whether you realize it or not,” he said. “It takes a significant event like this for people to realize the true meaning of community.”