Charleston authorities evacuated the north tower of Carman Hall Saturday afternoon when the fire department responded to a fire call that was caused by a burst pipe that emitted steaming hot water.

The pipe burst on the fifth floor and water leaked on that level and also drained down throughout the remaining floors.

The Resident Assistant on the fifth floor of the North tower, Kristin Wargo, said the call to the fire department was placed at 4:30 p.m. and fire trucks were on the scene within 15 minutes.

By that time, however, there was approximately 4 inches of standing water on the ground and enough steam that posters were falling off the walls, Darcy Marzullo, a freshman resident at Carman Hall, said.

“The first thing that I noticed was that steam started coming into the room,” Marzullo said. “Then the leak started coming in and it was boiling hot water that was enough to barely cover your toes.”

After evacuating the floor, the fire department searched the area to make sure the chance for an electrical fire had been eliminated.

The clean up was in its last stages at approximately 6:45 p.m., and the women who were evacuated from

the tower either spent their time in the lobby of the residence hall or in the basement. Some also went to friends’ places while the building was evacuated.

“The radiator has been fixed and the BSW’s (building service workers) will use their clean up vacuums and then the girls will be allowed back into their rooms,” Amy Price, Area Director, said. “The girls will definitely be able to be back in tonight because when we went through the same thing last year, they were back into their rooms the same night.”

Last year, pipes burst at various locations six different times on Eastern’s campus. This event at Carman Hall was the first time during this school year that it has happened.

The main cause for the bursting pipes during the winter time is that windows are left open causing some water to freeze and, consequently, expand. The expanding water bursts the pipes, which then causes leakage.

As for the rooms themselves, all university property will be taken care of by Eastern. Besides those items, however, the student is responsible for the damage done to their items, as stated in the Residence Hall contract that students agree to at the beginning of the year.

But because of the situation, Eastern also will take care of a few other items that may have been damaged in the flooding.

“We will help clean and dry any towels and bed sheets that were damaged in the flood,” Price said. “We understand this is a difficult situation for many students, and we hope to do what we can for them.”