BURST SPRINKLER PIPE CAUSES $10,000 IN DAMAGE TO HOSPITAL CAFETERIA IN HALIFAX, VIRGINIA
Hospital maintenance staff work to clean up the water damage
in the Halifax Regional Hospital cafeteria that occurred when a sprinkler
system pipe burst in the ceiling gushing thousands of gallons of water onto the
carpet and furniture early Friday morning.
Monday,
January 12, 2015
From staff reports
A burst sprinkler system pipe in the ceiling flooded the
Halifax Regional Hospital cafeteria with thousands of gallons of water early
Friday morning resulting in more than $10,000 damage.
According to South Boston Fire Chief Steve Phillips, it is
unclear whether the ceiling pipe froze and burst or if the elbow of the pipe
just separated from the rest of the pipe causing the water to gush into the
cafeteria and onto carpeted areas surrounding the dining area.
“When the pipe burst close to the outside wall early Friday
morning, it set the fire alarm off in the cafeteria,” Phillips said.
No one was inside the cafeteria at the time of the alarm,
but hospital personnel soon arrived to investigate and discovered it was a
burst pipe that had set off the alarm.
South Boston Fire Department received the call at 2:17 a.m.,
Phillips said, and responded with four trucks.
Halifax Volunteer Fire Department responded as well;
however, once firefighters surmised there was no fire and only a burst pipe,
Halifax volunteer firefighters were disregarded.
“Water was everywhere. It put a lot of water down, and we
were just trying to keep the water out of other areas,” Phillips explained.
Hospital maintenance and custodial staff were called into
the hospital for cleanup along with personnel from the sprinkler system company
to get the system “back up and running,” according to the fire chief.
Once hospital personnel arrived, staff used shop vacs to get
the water out of the floor and carpet in an effort to ascertain the extent of
the damage.
The stagnant water that had been sitting in the sprinkler
system pipes had “quite an odor,” according to the fire chief.
“It was quite a bit of damage,” Phillips said estimating the
amount at $10,000 or more.