A steam-pipe burst caused a disturbance of classes in Gould Hall on Wednesday afternoon and made for an even colder night for those in buildings south of Lindsey Street.
A 40-year-old component of the pipe failed causing the release of steam, said Bill Henwood, senior assistant for administrative affairs.
The steam system is used for heating buildings on campus, Henwood said. This particular pipe caused the loss of heat to all buildings south of Adams Center. An electronic statement from OU Provost Nancy Mergler also indicated that Gould Hall, Copeland Hall and Oklahoma Memorial Stadium might have lost heat.
As of press time Wednesday, repairs were still ongoing, but were expected to be completed by early this morning.
Henwood said the university's first priority was to fix the pipe and restore heat to the buildings.
The problem was noticed soon after 1:30 p.m. when smoke alarms began to sound and steam began to fill the basement in Gould Hall, which houses the College of Architecture.
Although Physical Plant workers quickly directed the steam out of Gould Hall into the tunnel under Asp Avenue, its presence took a toll on some of the building's facilities.
Bob Fillpot, College of Architecture dean, said there was some ceiling and floor damage on the lower level as a result of the moisture. Moisture also got into computer hardware knocking out the building's network access, he said.
The Architecture Library is located in the basement of Gould Hall and though some moisture did make it into the library, Fillpot said no books were damaged.
"This is very lucky, especially considering the leak occurred near a place where some of our most valuable books of antiquity are kept," Fillpot said.
A cost estimate of the damages could not be made until today when everything in Gould Hall dried, Henwood said.
The fire department showed up on the scene after getting the call at 1:42 p.m., Assistant Chief Bob Bledsoe said.
The arrival of the fire trucks and appearance of what appeared to be smoke to some, led students to believe there was a fire.
The steam caused a stir among Gould Hall students for over half an hour.
"It was pretty crazy," said Tony Wu, architecture sophomore. "I don't know if it was smoke or steam but we got out of class for 30 minutes."
Lora Fletcher, interior design junior, was on the first floor when the alarms began to go off. She said she was not sure what was going on.
"I thought somebody was making it up, or some guy pulled the alarm because he had a test," Fletcher said.
Steam shot high into the air out of the tunnel between Gould Hall and the Asp Avenue Parking Garage for several hours after students resumed classes.
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