Broken sprinkler head forces evacuation of Ed Landreth
Department cancels play, group continues with step show
By Nyshicka Jordan
Staff Reporter

What the audience expected was laughter, but instead it got water and flashing fire alarms.

The production of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” was delayed and eventually canceled Friday night when a sprinkler head was broken in Ed Landreth Hall Auditorium and caused the fire alarms to go off between 7:30 and 7:45 p.m. in the auditorium, the University Theatre and the Walsh Center for the Performing Arts, said TCU Police officer Walker Johnson.

“When the initial alarm went off everyone had to leave but when we determined it wasn’t a fire we let everyone back in,” Johnson said.

Johnson said the sprinkler broke in the first floor men’s bathroom in Ed Landreth Hall where participants of Delta Sigma Theta’s First Black History Celebration High School Step Show were changing. Johnson said a hanger was likely hung on the sprinkler and caused it to break and as a result Ed Landreth Hall was flooded with about three inches of water.

Meanwhile, the play was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. in University Theatre. Stage manager Mike Maloney, a junior business management major, said there were an estimated 300 people in the theater, and that everyone evacuated five minutes before the play began although no water reached the theater.

“Everyone was calm because they thought it was just an alarm,” Maloney said.
Maloney said that under normal circumstances the performance would be made up, but this performance will not be because he said TCU will host part of the American College Theatre Festival, preventing a make up.

However, while all the flooding was in Ed Landreth Hall, it did not distract the step show as it continued, even though alarms flashed throughout the event, Delta Sigma Theta president Jamie White said. She said they never left because they were told by police it was just a busted sprinkler.

White, a senior marketing and fashion promotions major, said about 200 people were at the event and that it was scheduled to begin at 7:13 p.m.

“We were concentrating on stepping,” White said. “Our organization doesn’t let stuff like that stop us.”

Richard Bryan, associate director of operations with the Physical Plant, said the sprinkler was replaced and five ceiling tiles in the basement of the auditorium fell. He said most water was on tile floors. He said carpets were not damaged and neither was furniture, to his knowledge.

Overall expenses were more than $2,000 that included calling in crews to replace the sprinkler and dry carpets, Bryan said.

n.d.jordan@tcu.edu