The Drake Arena was filled over capacity on Feb. 24 during school hours but there was no hockey game or even an ice event of any kind. In fact, nothing was happening in Drake Arena at all.

Freshman Grant Gunderson was in the gym for Fitness for Life class when the incident occurred. “Some kid threw a basketball up into the sprinkler system and it went off in the gym,” Gunderson said.

Immediately the fire alarm was triggered and St. Paul Academy and Summit School students evacuated the building. After standing in chilly 26 degree weather for several minutes, students were herded to Drake Arena amongst the sounds of fire truck sirens and excited chatter.

Middle and Upper School students crowded onto the spectator benches for a stay of about ten minutes. To pass the time students did the wave back and forth across the benches, started impromptu pop song choirs, and speculated amongst friends about what could’ve caused the disturbance.

In addition to the relocation of SPA students, the agitation of the sprinkler system resulted in flooding of the gym and athletic hallway. The weight room and boys’ locker room were especially affected. At the end of the day athletes were seen carrying their waterlogged belongings, previously stored in the locker room, in large plastic bags.

Get your umbrellas #gymflood2015

A video posted by Tom Patterson (@to_mpatterson) on Feb 24, 2015 at 11:42am PST

After their stay at Drake Arena, students returned to school only missing the first 10 minutes of tutorial. With the exception of orchestra being canceled, most classes resumed as normal but were slightly disrupted as the fire alarm system went off several times as it was reset during the first few minutes of class.