Katelyn Haggerty

At the beginning of the semester, all music majors attended a meeting where they were told about a very small possibility of the water pipes in the Fine Arts Center bursting. That small possibility became a serious reality this past weekend.

“I was in [room] 157 practicing and the campus had a power outage,” said Greg Tufts, a sophomore music major. “So everything went dark and emergency lights went on so I just kept practicing, sitting there playing piano, and I heard something burst and water came monsooning from the end of the room. It was 200 degree water, so I left the room, and the room filled up, within 10 minutes it was seeping down the hallway and it was a sauna in there, eventually they got it turned off and they brought janitors and dehumidifiers and cleaned it up.”

Tufts followed the advice given by the faculty at the beginning of the semester and called the police. “They sent people over from the physical plant,” said Tufts.

“The problem is of course that the system has been problematic for years, which is why they’re trying to fix it now,” said Chris Thornley, director of admissions and facilities for the Department of Music and Dance. “I am not sure why the pipes actually went, but we are in the midst of a renovation of the HVAC system at the Fine Arts Center, there was work done in January, and the whole project is an extensive project, which will involve closing the department this summer, and music staff will be in trailers. The student floors wont be gutted but stripped fairly well, all new pipes and ventilation.”

“We are very lucky that this building is open and allows our students to practice on the weekends. Had this not been discovered until Monday morning, damage to instruments and equipment could have been extensive,” said Thornley.

That’s just what a number of students who have their instruments in the lockers next to room 157 were worried about.

“There was water all down the hallway where everyone keeps their instruments, potential to destroy all of them if it seeped into the lockers,” said sophomore music major Katelyn Haggerty. “All of the people that practice in FAC are really upset.”

“Today, there was an asbestos warning sign on the door of the room that had the leak,” she said. “A few men were cleaning it out, and then the sign was removed after a few hours. Everyone is kind of freaked out because everyone was there trying to get their instruments out and we waded in the water. With asbestos and pipes bursting, we’re all fed up.”

Patrick J. Callahan, Associate News Editor at the University of Massachusetts, said the asbestos warning was there because there was a small amount of asbestos in the joint compound used to secure the sheetrock ceiling that contaminated the room and was cleaned up on Monday.

He said that once they had fixed the pipe, they changed the locks and secured the room. Because asbestos is only harmful when inhaled, the small amount released was wet, and the room was secured, there was no danger involved.

Grace Welter, freshman music major from Minnesota, was more worried about the steaming hot water. “I have class in there five days a week, if that had happened when we were in there someone could have gotten burned pretty bad,” she said.

A few students at the scene, including Tufts, suspected some of the equipment could have been damaged. “[That baby grand] was one of the nicer pianos, about a $20,000 piano ruined,” said Tufts.

Jim Cahill said a lot of the pipes and mechanical systems are original to the 30-year-old building, and facilities planning just recently got the money needed for extensive renovations. “It’s good that we have the money,” said Cahill. “The Physical Plant maintains the building and they have been struggling to patch it here and patch it there, so it was turned over to us to replace it. Sounds like it just failed because it’s old and we didn’t get to replace it yet. Work is going on now, and all the more reason to replace the piping.” Ben Williams can be reached at [email protected].