Meredith Shamburger

It all started out so innocently. SMU sent out an email which said:

“Routine testing of SMU’s sanitary sewer system will be conducted Saturday, Sept. 27, provided it does not rain. The testing will involve the use of a gray smoke that has an oily odor. It is possible you will see the smoke coming out of vent pipes on top of campus buildings and from manholes and storm drains.

If you see smoke coming from drains, sinks or toilets in your building, please notify SMU Campus Planning and Plant Operations at 214-768-3494. If you see or smell smoke anywhere else, please call 911 immediately.

The purpose of the testing, which will be conducted between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., is to find possible breaks and defects in the system. It will be concentrated in different quadrants of the campus, although the smoke may seep into other quadrants. Pattern for the testing:

•           Saturday 9/27 – The southwest quadrant, south of Dyer Street and west of Airline Road.

•           Saturday 9/27 – The southeast quadrant, south of SMU Boulevard and east of Airline Road.

The University apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause.”

How were we to know that this simple routine would cause a chain reaction of events that would forever change one Saturday morning?

Let me start at the beginning. It’s actually the middle, but it’s where everything started. For me, at least.

I was lying in bed on what promised to be a relaxing Saturday. I’d do some cleaning, watch a movie or two. Nothing major.

But then, I heard a voice. A man’s voice.

Living as I do, with myself and two other girls in one suite, I thought it was weird. But then I noticed a blinking light.

Fire Drill? On a Saturday? This is all so highly irregular. Usually they try to do it at 6am when everyone in the building is home.

But I don’t want to have to do this again, so I get up and go out the building. I couldn’t find my shoes, but I did manage to find my dorm key. I don’t need my ID because they’ll open the front door for us, but I don’t want to be standing out in the hall waiting for them to come and unlock my dorm.

Anyways, I get outside (and by this time my suitemate Laura has joined me), and I walk around the building to the front. FYI, I was the first person out on my side of the building. HA! Corner suites=awesome.

We’re standing there, wondering what’s going on, when they tell us to walk back towards the Health Center. So we do.

By this time, there’s a sizeable crowd outside in pajamas. We had a few who were dressed, some shirtless (guys, not girls), and then one very unfortunate girl in a bathrobe.

We all think it’s a fire drill.

But as we’re standing around, the RAs note that fire drills happen during the week. Not on a Saturday. And then some people from the fourth floor note that there was smoke coming from their laundry room.

It wasn’t a fire drill.

Police arrive and start checking out the building. The University Park fire department does not show up. I’m thinking this is pretty odd, because if it’s smoking they usually come and check it out. Like that time last year when some kid couldn’t cook his easy mac in the microwave and it started smoking on the third floor.

So we wait. And wait. And wait.

Then SMU PD comes out and talks to the RAs, because our Hall Director wasn’t there. Five minutes later and they tell us what’s going on.

Remember that email you got about the testing of the sewer system?

Remember it said there might be smoke that had an oily odor?

Well there was a leak in Mary Hay. The smoke went through the ventilation system, but as it got to the fourth floor, it didn’t have anywhere to go, so it gathered and set off the smoke alarms.

The police were there trying to dissipate the smoke to stop the alarms.

So there wasn’t a drill. There was no fire. Just a lot of smoke that has an oily odor, which has now seeped into every corner of Mary Hay.

Febreeze can only do so much.