Updated 3 March 2011. That’s a fair question following extensive water damage to the school after a pipe failed. According to the InterLake, officials think a frozen fire suppression line ruptured.
Update. According to the website for Glacier High, an inch-and-quarter pipe burst at a joint, releasing 3,500 gallons in approximately a quarter-hour. That's what happened. Why it happened is another matter. The school's insurer and others are searching for causes. I wouldn't rule out design/and or construction flaws just yet, but there may operational issues that were responsible or at least contributing factors.
A fire suppression line froze? In a school, supposedly state-of-the-art, less than a decade old? In temperatures one expects for this time of year (the mean temperature for 20–26 February was 14°F with a high of 36°F and a low of -9°F)?
Update. I should have mentioned that NE winds of 20–30 mph, gusting to 40–45 mph, brought the wind chill down to -20°F. Still, we experience that degree of cold on a regular basis and one expects the building would be designed to handle it.
If a fire suppression line did freeze in normal winter conditions, something is seriously wrong with the design and/or operation of the school. Have fire suppression lines been blocked before? If so, was that known?
The school district’s board of trustees and superintendent will conduct an investigation, and presumably will find the truth and provide a remedy. But this on top of the revelation that the fire suppression system at Flathead High School is woefully deficient (and that money to fix it evidently was instead spent on a student commons) will undermine confidence in the board and school administrators and make it more likely that the six-million-dollar building reserve levy will suffer a crushing defeat on 22 March.