Broken sprinkler head floods Amos Hall gym

A group of Pitt students stood in below-freezing winter temperatures yesterday afternoon as a… A group of Pitt students stood in below-freezing winter temperatures yesterday afternoon as a crew of emergency vehicles arrived at the Schenley Quad.

A flood in the Amos Hall fitness center caused an evacuation of the building at around 2:45 p.m. A maintenance worker said that freezing temperatures and frozen water pipes caused a sprinkler head to break, which flooded the gym, located on the bottom floor of Amos Hall.

Although three police cars and a fire truck arrived at the scene, students did not seem alarmed by the flood or the evacuation. Amos resident Kelli Ellis said, “The building was evacuated at around a quarter of three, but only for less than five minutes.”

“The fire alarm went off, and we saw a pool of water,” said student Kaley Levine, who walked by the fitness center around the time of the incident.

Some speculated that about two to three inches of water filled the gym. It was not clear whether any exercise equipment was affected by the flooding.

After the evacuation, a clean-up crew began to restore the carpets and repair the sprinkler system. Meanwhile, the fitness center closed until the crew could finish removing the water.

Students living in all residence halls of the Quad use the Amos Hall fitness center. It features three elliptical trainers, four treadmills, bicycles and weight-training equipment.

Security guards, the clean-up crew and campus police declined comment at the time of the incident because of privacy issues.

Staff writer Estelle Tran contributed to this article.