Sprinkler malfunction forces schools dismissal Tuesday

Hancock County Schools were dismissed district-wide on Tuesday after a sprinkler malfunctioned in a mechanical room at Hancock County High School on Sunday.

Superintendent Robert Asberry said the sprinkler flowed for at least two hours early Sunday morning, with the water damaging electrical and communications systems for the district. Internet and phone communications hardware is located in the room at the high school.

“With the damage at the high school, we did not have the communications we needed for our other schools,” Asberry said. “The room is located on the back side of the gym, so there was some water that got out into hallways nearby and on the gym floor on the edges.”

Asberry said a disaster relief team quickly responded to the school Sunday morning and began mitigating the damage.

“Repairs to everything in the room are taken care of, but we are watching the gym floor to see if moisture got underneath,” he said. “The disaster team put some dryers on the floor and have been on site for four days.”

The cause of the sprinkler malfunction is not known for certain, though the suspicion is that there was either a faulty sprinkler head or an emergency generator in the mechanical room ran for some time, producing extreme heat to trigger the sprinkler.

Asberry said there is already discussion on plans to obtain a back-up generator to service communications hardware located in the area in the event of another power outage to servers and phone systems.

The superintendent said the district will be in touch with the district’s insurance provider to file a claim for the incident.