Residents of a south London highrise were forced from their homes Wednesday after a pipe burst under suspicious circumstances, flooding the first three floors.
Emergency crews were called to the 14-storey building at 940 Commissioners Rd., near Adelaide Street around 7:20 a.m Wednesday. When they arrived water was gushing from balconies on the second and third floors.
"A main sprinkler system pipe had been flowing the water," said Platoon Chief Shawn Fitzgerald. "There was a lot of water damage to the first to third floors, there was lots of water coming through the elevators. Right now we have the power shut off to the building for safety, so there is no elevators, no alarm system."
A voluntary evacuation was ordered for the whole building. Emergency crews took residents, a few at a time, back inside to collect a few personal items before they were bused to a welcome centre set up at Carling Heights Optimist Community Centre for the day. Other tenants of the building loaded their vehicles and left to stay with family and friends.
Fire officials and the Electrical Safety Authority are assessing the building to see if it is safe to restore power.
940 Commissioners Road East
A damage estimate is not yet known.
"I'd expect it to be substantial, just because water can do a lot of damage when it gets running throughout a building," said Fitzgerald.
London police believe the three-inch pipe may have been intentionally damaged and are treating the incident as suspicious.
"Right now we are very early on in our investigation. What we can say is that it does appear that it is suspicious in nature and London police will be continuing with that investigation," said Constable Sandasha Bough.
Third-floor resident Jim Handy, who was asleep in his bed when the water started flowing, said it was the fire alarm that alerted him to the problem.
"I just assumed someone pulled the fire alarm and the next thing I know I had water coming in under my front door," said Handy. "I quickly got dressed, opened the apartment door and saw all of the water gushing down the hallway."
Betty Ashaford was anxious to get back inside the building to rescue her large Flowerhorn cichlids and Big Oscar fish, which live in 200-gallon aquariums in her first-floor apartment.
"I need my fish saved. I've had them a long time and they are very large," said Ashaford.
"The whole thing is pretty sad. Some people have nowhere to go. There are people with kids. Animals are all lined up to leave. It is pretty sad."