Pipe breaks, water bursts from ceiling into lobby of apartment complex in Rexburg
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REXBURG — A pipe froze and water burst inside a lobby at an apartment complex on Monday, causing college students to evacuate the area.
It happened around 4 p.m. at the Cedars Women’s Housing Complex at Hemming Village. The Madison Fire Department responded when a fire alarm went off in response to the flood.
In videos shot by the BYU-Idaho Scroll, it shows water falling and dripping from the ceiling along with pink insulation pieces on the floor of the lobby.
The housing complex posted on its Facebook page Monday, “Hey Cedars Womens! We had a pipe break and the front lobby, including the doors on the corner of 1st W and 2nd S, will be closed until further notice. A restoration team will be repairing it as soon as possible!!”
“The lobby of the complex is two stories. … the line that broke — was running through the ceiling of the lobby. So when the line broke, the water came down from that second story into the lobby area,” said Richie Webb, a managing partner with Hemming Village on Tuesday.
Webb said there were no reported injuries and no apartments were damaged.
“It turned out to be a lot better than it could have been,” Webb said.
As of Tuesday, the water has been cleaned up and a restoration company is working in the lobby to assess the water damage.
“Students are able to now come into the front entrance and get into the building but we still (have) some of the furniture that got wet,” Webb said.
Blake Judy, an emergency services manager from Tobin Cleaning and Restoration, told EastIdahoNews.com the broken pipe flooded the lobby with at least 600-700 gallons of water. There were 75 gallons a minute coming from the pipe. He said repairing the building will have an estimated cost of anywhere between $30,000 to $50,000.
