A few players tossing around a lacrosse ball ended up flooding a gymnasium in Keene, N.H., after an errant pass bounced off a wall and sprang upward, knocking a sprinkler-head cage into the sprinkler head and setting off the whole sprinkler system, according to the SentinelSource.com.
After what a school official described as a "one-in-a-million shot," the sprinkler system gushed for 20 minutes before firefighters could turn it off. Later, puddles 2 to 3 inches deep stood on the maple floor. Consequently, water seeped beneath the floor and into the sleeper system underneath, and the floor cupped.
The incident occurred on May 18. Preliminary estimates have pegged damages at in excess of $100,000. An unnamed wood flooring company recommended school officials let the floor dry out for two to three weeks before getting a final cost assessment of damages. A meeting with the school's insurance representatives is set for the first week in June.
Think this is an isolated incident? It's not. In the last year, HF has brought you three articles on gymnasiums that experienced similar floods. In one incident, the damaging projectile was unnamed. But in two other incidents, the culprits were a football and a kickball.
