The offices of five history professors in Coleman hall were left looking like the aftermath of a World War II air raid after a broken steam trap caused ceiling tiles to fall.

Shortly after the July 4 weekend, a steam trap in Coleman hall broke sending humid air through the mechanical room and into the space between second floor ceilings and the tiles beneath them.

“My boss Gary Reed talked about $8,000 to $10,000 just in ceiling replacement,” Rick Bagwell of the environmental control department said.

The humidity caused ceiling tiles in offices located in the west wing of the building to become damp eventually weakening them until they fell on the desks and shelves below them.

Damages included roughly 200 tiles to the office of history department chair Anita Shelton, 100 tiles to history professor John McElligott, 4 tiles to history professor Charles Titus, 6 tiles to history professor Roger Beck and 26 tiles to history professor Roger Beck’s office.

Bagwell said the Honeywell company replaced 8,000 steam traps as part of a performance contract slated to help Eastern save money.

The performance contract repairs certain mechanical aspects in Eastern’s buildings making the systems run more energy efficiently and eventually saving money by reducing energy costs.

It’s still unclear why the steam trap failed, but Bagwell said one failure out of the 8,000 replaced isn’t surprising.