Either a sewage pipe burst, or a sprinkler was set off by a lighting rig

Jan 13, 2014 10:26 GMT  ·  By

Hours before the Golden Globes 2014 awards gala, mayhem broke on the red carpet, but the fuss had nothing to do with the ceremony that was about to start. A sewage pipe broke. Well, either that or a sprinkler was set off unexpectedly.

Conflicting reports about what happened are making the rounds, with TMZ saying that the water came from a sewage pipe that burst.

THR, on the other hand, says reports stating this to be the cause of the flood are off the mark, because the water came from a fire sprinkler that was set off by a lighting rig positioned too close to it.

The bottom line is that the red carpet was ruined, despite several crews’ best efforts to clean up the mess. Air blowers and wet vacuum cleaners were used but, by the time the ceremony started, the red carpet was still not dry.

To make matters even worse, it had been torn and was coming apart in pieces in certain areas, as various photos posted online show.

Members of the media had to be repositioned. Ryan Seacrest, who worked the red carpet for E!, tweeted something about not wanting to be in the shoes of a woman with a long gown for the night, so it looks like organizers were in no position to shut down the flooded area for the night.

Above is a video of the sprinkler (or burst pipe) in action.