February 7 proved to be an eventful day in Andrew Melville Hall, after a sausage roll nearly caused a fire and a burst pipe caused havoc.
A fire alarm was sounded around lunchtime in Kitchen K2. A student over-cooked a sausage roll in the microwave after leaving the appliance unattended.
Hall staff noted that upon discovering the charred sausage roll, it was minutes away from setting the microwave on fire. The sausage roll still had almost 7 minutes left to go on the timer when it was discovered. Typically they require less than a minute to be cooked through. The microwave is now too damaged to remain in use, and as no one at the time of writing has come forward, will be charged to the Andrew Melville Hall committee.
In an email to the residents, the Melville Residence Administration said: “It would be very much appreciated if the person who was responsible for this could come to the office to offer some sort of explanation.” In lieu of the incident, Hall staff is encouraging students to be more mindful of the cook times of different products as well as urging them to remain in the kitchen until they are done using appliances.
The second incident reported happened later in the day when it was discovered that a pipe had burst. Hall Administration was forced to discourage students from using sinks, showers and toilets; an inconvenience that extended to all those living in the Hall. Although the situation was shortly rectified, this incident is indicative of a much larger issue: the status of the plumbing in Andrew Melville Hall.
Senior Student Dan Vinton said, “it’s part of a larger set of issues with the plumbing that’s included over-flows, leakage, backups etc.
“For the most part management seeks to blame students – including for ostensibly showering with the shower doors open which is ridiculous – despite the fact that we haven’t ever had problems on this scale before the renovation.”
Nothing is known regarding what Hall Administration plans to do to prevent further pipe-related issues, however it is assumed that Hall Administration will be forced to more seriously investigate the issue of causation in the near future.
