A sprinkler head on the sixth floor of Pomerantz Hall in East Quad burst on Sunday evening, causing at least several hundred gallons of water to flood the hall and residents' rooms.Several students playing football hit a sprinkler head in the middle of the hall, activating the sprinkler system and fire alarm, Director of Residence Life Maggie Balch said Sunday, as facilities workers drained water.

East Quad Director Megan Drangstveit said members of the administration would meet Tuesday to determine where financial responsibility for the damage would fall.

Rooms in the middle of the sixth floor were flooded, but the outer edges of the hall stayed dry. Water also leaked into rooms on the fifth floor.

This marked the third such incident in as many semesters. Sprinkler heads burst twice in Ziv Quad in the fall of 2004, once on Aug. 29, and again two days later.

Jason Fenster '08, who lives on the fifth floor, said he sped to his room from play rehearsal when he heard about the incident around 7 p.m.

When he arrived, he found water leaking through his ceiling and walls. He said his neighbor's room "got hit worse" than his.

"We got towels and [Tupperware] and trashcans and buckets taking in water," Fenster said. "We moved everything away from the walls where the water was coming in."

Several students said the sprinklers were going off for more than a half an hour, but Director of Public Ed Callahan said "facilities worked as quickly as possible to turn off the system."

Collins said that even once the sprinkler system was shut down, it took longer for all the water flow to stop.

After shutting off the sprinkler system, facilities drained all the water from the affected floors and had a plumber replace the broken sprinkler head, Collins said.

Community Advisor for the sixth floor Andrew Eilbert '08 estimated that two feet of water had accumulated on the floor.

"People in the middle of the hallway were hit hardest," Eilbert said. "In the stairwells, it was raining."

The sprinklers, a fire prevention system, are attached to a network of piping that is constantly filled with water under pressure, Collins said. The sprinklers release water when the head is either tampered with or melted off from the heat of a fire.

There was "70 pounds of pressure coming through the pipes," Collins said.

"Even after the sprinklers went off there was still water coming in because there was still water leaking through the ceiling from the standing water on the floor above," Fenster said.

Fenster said the smell on his floor is the worst part of the experience

"The steam pipe is spewing out smelly things," he said. "The water's mildewy and gross and towels are going to rot, so it's pretty nasty."

Balch asked residents to make lists of damaged personal items, in order to help the Administration assess the extent of the damage.

East Quad Senator Jacob Baime '08, who met with most of the affected residents on Sunday night, expressed concern for students with damaged mattresses.

"Some people whose mattresses got extremely wet did not receive replacement mattresses that evening," he said. "Several residents are exasperated that it took so long to shut the sprinkler off and that it was so sensitive in the first place."

Carly Field '08, who lives on the sixth floor, said the students who set off the sprinklers should be held at least partially responsible.

"I think Brandeis needs to do something, either reprimand the people who did that or reimburse [the affected students]," she said.