(CU Independent illustration/Kelly Kaoudis)
Pipe bursts in Darley North have led to two separate evacuations today.
The first evacuation occurred Thursday morning at 5:30 a.m., when the smoke alarm went off, and then again at noon. The first pipe was located in the laundry room on the first floor, and burst after freezing, said Cmdr. Tim McGraw of CUPD.
“Because of the extremely cold weather, the pipe froze and then burst,” Cmdr. McGraw said. “The water release was linked to the basement, causing the smoke detector to short-circuit.”
At noon, the same event occurred on the second floor, with another pipe freezing, bursting and setting off the smoke alarm. Cmdr. McGraw said maintenance has arrived at the scene and is working on fixing the issue.
“The maintenance people got to the pipes as quickly as they could and are squaring everything away,” Cmdr. McGraw said.
Kristen Herbert, a 19-year-old freshman English major, lives on the second floor of Darley North and experienced the flooding caused by the second pipe burst.
“All the carpeting in the hallway is soaking wet,” Herbert said. “The guys across the hall from me have an inch of water in their room. It’s nuts. We just got evacuated; water was pouring down the whole stairway.”
Herbert also said she could see the leaking on the outside of the building.
“Water was leaking through the walls,” Herbert said. “You could tell when you looked outside the building.”
Cmdr. McGraw said the pipe bursts cause no danger to those students living in Darley North.
“The kids are in no danger, but the fire alarm means they have to evacuate and the fire department must respond,” Cmdr. McGraw said.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Rachel Hersch at Rachel.hersch@colorado.edu.
