Burst pipe floods downtown high rise for seniors

Living on the 13th floor of a Salt Lake senior center turned out to be unlucky for several residents Thursday.

Cindy, who uses a wheelchair, was watching TV in her living room when she heard a noise, as if something had just burst. The next thing she saw was water gushing out of her closet.

"The water was just spraying out of the sprinkler," said Cindy, who did not want her last name used. "And it was that black stuff."

Cindy's apartment was quickly filled with two inches of standing water.

The disruption in the emergency sprinkler system in the Multi-Ethnic Senior Citizen High Rise, 128 S. 200 West, caused the building's fire alarm to go off, prompting the 15-story high rise's more than 140 units to evacuate.

Residents say an old sprinkler head, possibly one of the building's original, was not replaced when others were. The sprinkler was located in an isolated corner at the top of a closet in Cindy's bedroom on the 13th floor.

Salt Lake City fire spokesman Mark Bednarik said crews determined a sprinkler head was to blame for the accident, but it was unclear Thursday what caused it to burst.

Water gushed from the 1-inch pipe for about 15 minutes before crews shut it off. During that time, there was flooding and water damage that stretched from the water's origin on the 13th floor all the way down to ground level. An estimated 20 units were affected, Bednarik said.

"The floors below got it bad," said Joe Wick, who lives next door to the apartment where the pipe burst.

James Easter, who also needs the assistance of a wheelchair to get around, was still in bed when the alarm went off about 8 a.m. Easter lives on the ninth floor and had flooding in several rooms.

"There was water a foot deep in the kitchen," he said. "We had to get everything up out of the flood. Our apartment is in bad shape."

David Bailey, who lives on the fourth floor, had water dripping from his entryway ceiling into his apartment.

"I left when the fire alarm went off," he said.

Marlene Moulton lives on the 15th floor of the building and was not affected by the flood but was forced to evacuate anyway.

"(Tenants) were a little unsettled," she said.