LCCVI Photo

BURST FROZEN PIPE LEADS TO A BASEMENT ‘LIKE A SWIMMING POOL’

LCCVI students will have another day off as officials try to clean up made by a massive flood in the Petrolia high school’s boiler room.

Officials announced they will be closed Friday as crews try to assess the damage from Wednesday’s incident.

Electricians, heating and cooling experts and disaster restoration crews are at LCCVI assessing the damage after a two-inch water pipe broke filling the school’s basement.

Director of Education Jim Costello says around 9 am yesterday a custodian on his rounds went into the boiler room and found a pipe in the basement gushing water. Officials say the line serving the football field sprinkler system froze.

The school was quickly evacuated and the students sent home. In an hour and a half, the water was six to seven feet deep and 10 feet deep in some spots, according to Costello. “That’s the deep end of a pool.”

It took nearly eight hours to pump about 38,000 gallons of water out of the basement.

It’s not clear exactly how much damage was done yet – that’s being assessed now but Costello is expecting the repairs to building will be costly since the boiler is the main heating unit for the building.