Library flooded by burst radiator

Students were evacuated from Floor 01 of the Library at around 2am this morning after it was flooded by water from a burst radiator.

Floor 01 – home to the Library’s Journal Collection as well as a silent reading room – was left with soaked carpets and saturated study areas.

The main leak occurred near the ‘Per Q’ Journals section, to the left hand side of the main stairwell on that floor.

Some material on Floor 02, home to UEA’s archives, is also thought to be partially damaged after water leaked down to the lower floor through the ceiling.

Third-year student Jo Thompson was working on Floor 01 when the incident took place.

She says: “The water was gushing from the wall where a pipe had burst.

“It was really hot and all of 01 got pretty steamy. It seemed like all the steam might cause some damage even if the water didn’t. We picked a few books up to get them out of the way.”

She then went down to Floor 02 to try and save some material.

“A friend and I were moving electronics and paperwork by the archives when UEA security arrived to put buckets down on 02.

“The water was brown and we were ferrying buckets full of it to the toilets.

“It was coming in through the light fixtures at first, then all through the ceiling. Where we were on 02 was the archives so there were disaster packs to save the books. But we didn’t need them in the end.

Jo says: “I saw a girl running up the stairs to tell the desk, then heard the security guy Ash making a call to say, ‘We’ve got quite a bit of an emergency down here’ and that there was ‘a serious amount of water.’

“The UEA staff were pretty chill. The girl who alerted the desk seemed pretty flustered… But afterwards people were just taking photos and chuckling as the water seeped slowly across the floor of 01.”

The students were then evacuated to higher floors.

A statement issued by the Library this morning read:

“An incident on floor 01 of the Library has resulted in water damage to some material on floors 01 and 02. There will be restricted access to print journals on Floor 01 for the next day or so.

“We will be providing a fetch and carry service for these materials. If you need a print journal from floor 01 please request it at the Library Helpdesk (Floor 0).”