When Adam Mcdonald woke up in his Algonquin residence room around 3 a.m. during the first week of the winter term, he noticed water coming from his ceiling.
“It was dripping out of the top of the window the way water would drip out of a tap,” said Mcdonald, a pre-trades student. “Then it just started flowing very fast.”
Shortly after 3 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 8, a leak occurred on the fifth floor of Algonquin residence, flooding 11 suites and leaving 15 students displaced.
The leak was caused by a valve on a rooftop water tank that failed due to a campus-wide power outage, as well as below-freezing temperatures. The repairs were not made by Algonquin College maintenance workers, therefore they could not comment on the incident.
“Employees were immediately on hand to support students and acted quickly to find alternative accommodations for students within residence,” said Sophie Galvàn, the general manager of residence, in an email regarding the incident.
Mcdonald, whose room was flooded, said he and his roommate, Easton Morrison, an H-VAC technician student, spent the rest of the night in their truck as no accommodations could be made for them right away.
“We were able to coordinate all room moves by the end of day on Jan. 8,” said Galvàn, confirming that students weren’t given new rooms until the following afternoon.
“While we regret and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused those who live in residence, we very much appreciated that those students affected were very responsive, cooperative and patient despite the situation,” she said. “This allowed remediation and urgent repairs to commence immediately, helping us resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”