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The Daily Tar Heel

Ceiling collapses in Stacy dorm room

A maintenance worker inspects the ceiling in a Stacy Residence Hall room. Photo courtesy Anja Burcak.

A maintenance worker inspects the ceiling in a Stacy Residence Hall room. Photo courtesy Anja Burcak.

Senior Anja Burcak and sophomore Molly Paul had been out of their room in Stacy Residence Hall all day Tuesday to study for their upcoming summer session final exams. When Burcak got back that evening, her roommate had news about their dorm room.

"We both came in around the same time, and she said, ‘Did you see what happened to our room?’ And I hadn’t been there all day, so I didn’t know what she was talking about," Burcak said. "And I opened it, and there were chunks of the ceiling everywhere, basically, all over the floor and where it came from was directly over my bed. It was like this huge part of the ceiling just collapsed."

According to Rick Bradley, the associate director of the Department of Housing and Residential Education, the plaster on the ceiling fell due to a leak in a condensate line, which removes condensation from air conditioners.

"It affected only one room and both residents were relocated to a new room," Bradley said in a statement. "The RA responded when notified and the maintenance staff were on site within an hour to perform the repair."

Nobody was injured and none of Burcak and Paul’s property appeared to be damaged. But Burcak said that she was concerned about what would have happened if she had been sleeping when the ceiling fell in.

Burcak and Paul were offered a room on the same hall as their previous room to spend the night. Burcak said that the RAs helped her and her roommate clean up the room, offered to wash her bedding and drove her to a friend's house. 

"I got an email saying that we are going to be able to move for summer session two to Aycock, and last night they gave us access to an empty room that's right across the hall (from their old room in Stacy)," Burcak said. "But I didn't want to stay there because of what happened right across the hall, so I just stayed at a friend's house last night."

Allan Blattner, director of the Department of Housing and Residential Education, said that despite regular preventative maintenance on all residential buildings, sometimes situations like Burcak and Paul's are unavoidable.

"I don’t think (it's) a particularly ‘Stacy’ issue. I think it’s anywhere you’ve got an air conditioning unit, you have that natural run-off."

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