Chinese food was not the only thing causing commotion in the Colvard Student Union on the first day of class.  Ceiling sprinklers went off at the new Panda Express after the hood fan failed to exhaust temperatures that exceeded 155 degrees. 
Bill Kibler, vice president for student affairs, said when the sprinkler system went off, the alarm system activated and automatically notified the fire department. 
“They didn’t have to fight a fire,” Kibler said. “They just responded, and their responsibility was to make sure the building stayed secured (closed) until the building was safe for occupancy.”
Bill Broyles, assistant vice president for Student Affairs, said workers were making revisions to the fan on the roof of the Union to increase the capacity of the exhaust duct. 
“Since the fan was not exhausting all of the heat it needed to, the sprinkler head went off,” Broyles said. 
The Union had to be evacuated until the alarm was reset. Workers then installed a new sprinkler head they recharged with water.  The building was reopened for normal operation around 7 p.m. with no damage.  Because the water went out through the floor drain in Panda Express, the water never reached the floor of the food court, Broyles said. 
“The good news is that even though (the sprinklers) discharged a lot of water, we didn’t have a lot of structural or equipment damage.  We made sure that the equipment was safe to operate,” he said. 
Broyles said this incident should not happen again.
“We are actually having (the exhaust fan) tested to see if it is drawing the cubic feet of air that it needs to exhaust,” he said. “We are confident that the work we did with the exhaust fan will take care of the problem, and we should not experience this again.”