Melted pipe causes flooding, evacuation in Granville Towers

Smoke and flooding forced Granville Towers East residents out of their rooms early Sunday morning ­— leading to temporary student relocations and up to half a million dollars in damages.

According to a report from the Chapel Hill Fire Department, a ventilation fan motor in a third floor bathroom overheated, melting a PVC pipe for the sprinkler system that led to flooding in the first three floors.

The flooding affected 140 residents, said Susan Jennings, vice president of corporate communications and marketing for EdR, the company that manages Granville Towers.

Joey Skavroneck, a freshman who lives across the hall from where the flooding started on the third floor, said he got a call at 2:30 a.m. Sunday from his roommate letting him know about the flooding.

“There was a little under a foot of water in our room,” Skavroneck said.

“I had some clothes damaged. Textbooks were the main thing — anything left on the floor was damaged because for us, the water came through the floor and the lower walls.”

Students said they began to realize something was wrong when smoke started to fill the rooms above the melted fan.

Roya Zarrin, a freshman who lives on the fourth floor, got a call from her neighbors at 1:05 a.m. who said that they could smell smoke from her room and that her fire alarm was going off.

Zarrin said that when she ran to open her door, a cloud of smoke rolled out.

“I didn’t know what to do,” she said.

Chapel Hill firefighters were dispatched to the property at 1:09 a.m., responding to what was originally considered a structural fire, said Assistant Fire Marshal Johnny Parker.

When they arrived, firefighters pulled the building’s fire alarm to fully evacuate residents, triggering the sprinkler system.

Evan Sohmer, a freshman resident, said water was still flowing when he was allowed to re-enter hours later.

“It was like a scene out of Titanic,” Sohmer said. “There was just water coming from the walls and ceiling.”

According to the fire department’s accident report, Allison Kenny, assistant general manager for Granville, estimated the damage to be between $250,000 to $500,000.

Students whose rooms were affected by flooding have been given the option to relocate to Hinton James residence hall or to empty, unaffected rooms in Granville.

“Some have been relocated, some have found temporary housing through UNC housing,” Jennings said. “University housing has been a huge help in relocating students.”

Jennings said she is unsure when damages will be fully repaired. She added that cleanup crews have already been dispatched and a dry cleaner has been contacted to clean students’ clothes damaged by the flooding.

Jennings said Granville is working to set up plans to prevent malfunctions like this from happening in the future.

But she said she was pleased with how the situation was handled.

“Actually, this is exactly what you want to happen. The sprinklers worked,” she said.

“We don’t want the sprinklers to determine, ‘Hmm, is this a real fire?’”

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