All residents of Foery Hall were forced to evacuate Saturday Sep. 15, due to one misdirected dart. Around 5pm that day, the Director of Campus Life and Leadership, John Haley, said he remembers getting a call that the sprinkler system was going off in the building.

The preliminary reports state that during a game of darts in suite 508 one dart missed and hit a sprinkler head. It was estimated that about 20-30 gallons of water per minute were discharged from the sprinklers. “This ended up causing a flood in the room to put out what it thought was a fire,”  said Haley.

The incident took place on the even sided rooms on the fifth floor and the water managed to travel all the way down to the basement. However, certain rooms were flooded more than others. According to Haley, a total of nine suites and two rooms in the basement were affected directly.

After the fire alarm for the entire building was set off, every resident was forced to stay outside for a few hours while security, physical plant and other faculty members got the alarms and sprinklers under control, and assessed the situation accordingly.

Although this affected every student in Foery, Haley pointed out that 31 students [everyone in the 5th floor suites on the even side] were affected the most. Everyone else was permitted to return and stay that night, while  those 31 students weren’t allowed to return until last Tuesday around 5pm.

As to where these students stayed for three and a half days, Haley said, “It was up to them, they could stay on campus with a friend, they could go home and commute, or we said we would get them hotels. We ended up putting, on average 10-12 people in the hotel, each night.”

In assessing the damage, Assistant Vice President for Facilities Management and Planning, Jed Schneider stated, “There was no structural damage. There was some damaged drywall, floor and ceiling tiles.”

According to Haley’s  knowledge, this was the second time a flood happened in Foery Hall.

“I think it was about 4 years ago; it was on the second floor of the same wing, and some students had a pellet or airsoft gun. They were shooting around and one of the pellets hit the sprinkler,” Haley said. “At that time the second floor, first floor and all of the basement, where LSPB used to store their stuff, got flooded.”

In Haley’s opinion the situation in Foery was made much easier due to the cooperation and understanding of the students.

“Kudos to them. It was nobody’s fault; it was obviously an accident. Beth Griffith and her staff over there in Foery were also a ton of help; so was physical plant and security,” he added.

Junior and resident of suite 504 [neighbor of suite 508], Racheal Risley, stated that as the water came in and settled, her suitemates’ room closest to 508 had the most water [about two inches or more]. As far as damage is concerned, she said there wasn’t much damage to electronics; mostly rugs and electrical cords damages, along with the loss of food items.

“Everyone’s first reaction was to get angry because of course it’s your stuff…but the more details that came out, I started to feel bad for the guys because they’re not the ones that did it; it was a freak accident,” said Risley.

Risley stayed in her rugby teammates’ suite for a day before the school provided hotel rooms at the Holiday Inn Express on Bridge St.

“It was a really frustrating situation to be in but it was really nice to see how the Le Moyne community pulled together,” said Risley. “If I was at another college or if I didn’t have the friends that I have here, this situation could’ve been a million times worse than it was.”