Fire alarms and flooding caused a rude awakening for Roberts Hall residents at approximately 2:00 a.m. on Monday, September 7, with damages to the building rumored to be near $10,000.
Weeks later, officials are no closer to finding the perpetrator, but resident Caterina Frollano ’18 vividly remembers the incident. “I looked down and saw all the water coming in, and I panicked because I had everything on the floor,” she said.
As a result of a burst standpipe in a second floor Roberts Hall stairwell, low water pressure caused the building’s fire alarms to activate and register with the Lake Forest Fire Department, forcing students to evacuate the building in the early hours of the morning.
The standpipes, which are located within the stairwells of each building, contain pressurized water to be released in the case of fires.
According to Director of Residence Life and Associate Dean of Student Affairs Andrew Pollom, someone intentionally removed a bolt in the pipe bracket, which caused the pipe to become dislodged and water to fall, flooding the middle stairwell.
Although the College is still looking for the perpetrator, Roberts residents are no longer faced with covering the cost of repairs to the building. The areas most affected by the flooding were the tiling and carpeting in the stairwell, lounge, and Resident Director’s room—though the room is currently vacant—and the water pipe itself.The cost of damages was mainly for infrastructure and clean-up due to water
The cost of damages were mainly for infrastructure and clean-up due to water exposure, Dean Pollom said. Although damage repair costs to common areas are typically divided among the residents of a building, Dean Pollom reports that students living in Roberts Hall will not be charged in this case, due to the large amount and the unusually early time of day in which the damages occurred.
According to Frollano, the damage to her room was not significant, despite her initial concern at the flooding. Though Frollano did not report the damage to the College, she states Residence Life was helpful in the aftermath of the flooding, offering their services to help her however they could.
Despite the damages to the building, Dean Pollom says that the incidence “could have been a lot worse.” Students with any information on who may have damaged the pipe should report the information to the Office of Residence Life immediately.
