Burst Pipe in UWM Sandburg Hall’s North Tower Forces Evacuation, Disrupts Elevators

A burst pipe in the North Tower of UWM’s Sandburg Hall caused disruptions for students on Wednesday evening, March 11. The burst triggered the fire alarm, causing an evacuation of the tower and the disruption of the tower’s elevators for days.

The pipe burst originated on the 10^th floor and mainly affected floors eight through 10. Along with the floors being affected, discolored, brown-looking water leaked down through portions of one of the tower’s stairwells. According to a university spokesperson, the incident occurred when “a water pipe supplying the fire suppression sprinkler system in the trash chute in Sandburg’s north tower was damaged after being struck by a heavy object thrown down a trash chute.”

Students were evacuated from the tower and moved into the Palm Gardens seating in Sandburg’s common area as maintenance crews and firefighters responded to the incident.

“I live in East Tower, but I was in the common area when everything happened,” said sophomore Lucas Paprocki. “They put a lot of the north tower residents into the Palm Gardens area, not allowing them back into the tower for hours. It would only benefit housing and the university’s reputation to send out some sort of compensation for anybody really affected by what happened.”

The disruption affected daily routines for many residents, particularly those living on higher floors who rely heavily on elevator access.

After the leak was stopped, crews cleaned up and assessed the damage as students were allowed to return to their rooms, including those on floor 10. However, the elevators remained out of service, leaving some students to walk up over 20 flights of stairs to return.

By Thursday, partial service was restored, but with significant limitations. The university spokesperson added that water from the damaged pipe “sprayed into the elevator shaft, causing damage to one of the elevators,” and that the affected elevators were temporarily taken out of service while repairs were completed. One of the tower’s three elevators was temporarily restricted to stopping only on even-numbered floors while the other two were out of order for work. By Friday, the three elevators had been restored to normal operating conditions.

“I don’t live here or on any of the floors affected, but I use the elevators in North Tower a lot to visit friends,” said sophomore Steven Zhang. “It’s just very inconvenient to only have one elevator working and only stop at certain floors. It gets a lot worse at busier times during the day, so it just sucks to have a restriction on it.”

The burst pipe also reopened concerns among students about infrastructure issues in Sandburg Hall, which has experienced similar incidents in recent years.

On April 19, 2024, a separate flooding event occurred, also in the hall’s North Tower, after a fire suppression system was tampered with, according to a UWM spokesperson. That incident led to significant water damage on the second floor and below, leading to 19 students being temporarily assigned to alternative housing.

Although the causes of the two incidents differ, both events highlight the potential impact of building system failures. Sandburg Hall is the largest housing facility for UWM and accommodates a significant portion of the university’s student population, making incidents like this particularly noticeable.

Students reacted on the anonymous social media platform YikYak, where posts raised concerns about the building’s conditions, drawing comparisons to the 2024 incident. Some of the anonymous users were able to help each other out by updating the users in the community on any new information that came through. Many of the reactions on the app, however, were jokes made about the situation.

Various users asked about compensation in case any of their items in their dorms were damaged, but did not receive encouraging answers. A user stated they were awarded $25 in PantherCash after their dorm flooded this past summer, and were not happy with that as compensation.

“It’s crazy that people have to deal with something like this, and that it could have happened to somebody twice,” said Paprocki. “Of course, things like this happen, but it happening two times in just under two years is wild to me. I just hope that it doesn’t happen again anytime soon, and I hope they find out what caused it.”

The incident also caused flooding in a student housing area, leading to the temporary relocation of four students from one suite during repairs.

By the weekend, everything had returned to normal for North Tower, but residents are more wary about the future.

“UWM is committed to providing a safe and supportive living environment so students can thrive while living on campus,” the spokesperson said. “We appreciate students’ patience and cooperation as repairs are completed and the affected areas are restored.”