BURST SPRINKLER
PIPE FLOODS CONDOS AND DISPLACES RESIDENTS, FIREFIGHTERS BLAME COLD WEATHER IN
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH.
SALT LAKE CITY – A leak at housing complex in Sugar
House has flooded two condos and a business, and firefighters said cold weather
is a factor.
Firefighters were called to the Urbana on 11th Condos,
1988 South 1100 East, around 3 p.m. Thursday, and water could be seen coming
out of windows and from under doors on the second floor.
A pipe burst and flooded three units, and firefighters
said cold temperatures caused that pipe to burst. The pipe that burst was
connected to the sprinkler head on the third floor. No one was home at the time
at either condo.
Firefighters had to bust their way through the door in
order to shut off the water, but by that time there was already 3 inches of
standing water on the floor. The water had also leaked into a unit on the
second floor as well as the real estate business on the first floor. The
residents of both condos have been displaced due to the flooding.
“We had water coming from the ceiling, out of every
light fixture, smoke detector fixture in the apartment–just water coming down
everywhere,” said Capt. Jeff Kauffmann of the Salt Lake City Fire Department.
Kam Fung was displaced by the flooding.
“It was in total mess, I mean possibly because the
firemen moved all my furniture around just to make sure they don’t get soaked,”
Fung said. “.. I am very frustrated, I want to bang my head against the wall.”
The tenant also brought up an interesting point, he said
he had just returned from a five-day Christmas vacation and the water was not
running in his bathroom. Whether or not that also played into that pipe
bursting is undetermined.
Lori Hewlett lives on the second floor. She said she
doesn’t have enough pots and pans to catch all of the drips. However, she
is grateful to the firefighters for their quick response.
“Some pictures I had on the floor of my children that I
was going to put up, they got them together and put a big tarp over them, they
got my couch and table and chairs and put a big tarp over them,” Hewlett
said.
On the ground floor, Kelly Hannah, the owner of
Eightline Real Estate, went into survival mode trying to save all the important
documents on his desk.
“That was unfortunately one of the sections where water
was just pouring through the ceiling, coming down like Doughnut Falls or
something,” Hannah said.
Despite the soggy beginning to 2015, all of these
tenants remained in good spirits.
“2015 could be a good year for me,” Fung said.
